


Friends (Frerard)

by disnechanted



Category: As It Is (Band), My Chemical Romance, frerard - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-07-27 15:16:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16221767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disnechanted/pseuds/disnechanted
Summary: Gerard Way has a few close friends who mean a lot to him, but they don't know his secrets, he'd never dare to tell them for fear what they might do.Frank Iero, fresh out of university has applied for a job as a music teacher, and he gets it, but at what cost?





	1. 1. Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Please note!! I am from the UK where sex is legal when consented to past the age of 16! I will be using any other legalized rules from the UK because those are the ones I know ! thank you
> 
> I HAVE put this under the "underage" warning bc I know you americans have some weird rules over there so that's a warning for you guys, but from where im from, neither are underage !!

Frank had just gotten an email via his professional email address to notify him that his application for Music teacher in NJ high had been accepted. Damn they must be desperate if they're taking him - got an A* in GCSE Music but never even thought about what he wanted to do for a job until after Uni. He had done rather well in his A-Levels, achieving top of the class In most of his subjects, but he didn't want to teach any of them.  
Luckily NJH was taking anyone who even remotely wanted to be a teacher was being accepted as the outstanding teachers were leaving as fast as they could be provided.  
—  
Frank walked into the classroom, a leather work bag slung over his shoulder and his white shirt sleeves rolled up, revealing his tattoos. He had arrived before many of the students, leaving him enough time to set up. He wrote his name on the whiteboard, making sure to exaggerate the top and bottom lines on the "i" so that no one made the mistake of calling him "Mr Lero" as that had happened before.  
He unpacked his bag, pulling out the shitty Toshiba laptop the school had given him to take the register on and make any sources for his class, and laying it on his desk, then pulling out a set of whiteboard pens and laying them next to it.  
The bell went too soon to signal the start of classes and students came pouring in. Many of them looked the same - denim jeans and plain coloured t-shirts for the boys, some with hoodies on, and skirts, shorts or leggings with cropped tops or tight fitting frilly things that was obviously part of fashion now. But one boy caught his eye, not looking too different from the rest of them, his legs clad in black skinny jeans, a black hoodie thrown over his torso. His head was hung low and bright red - you could say fire truck coloured - hair hung over his face as he shuffled into the classroom.  
Frank introduced himself, pointing to the whiteboard behind him when saying his name, making sure to pronounce the "I". He took the register and hit submit, letting the reception of the school know that all the kids who were supposed to be in, were in.  
He then handed out some small pieces of paper to all the students and asked them to write their names, their favourite or preferred genre of music, and their favourite artist or band.  
"Sir, if we're doing this, then can't you do the same?" One student asked, from what Frank remembered his name was Max, "I mean, if you're getting to know us, it's not really fair if we only know your name,"  
"Yeah of course I can," Frank had happily replied.  
Under his name, he wrote that his favourite genre was Rock or Metal, and his favourite band was Iron Maiden. He turned back around to see some of the 'lads' sitting looking at him with their eyebrows raised, as if they were collectively saying,  
"Really? That's the music you listen to?"  
Frank just smirked and told them that, "Yes I do listen to iron maiden, but I thought such bright pupils such as yourselves would have maybe figured that out from the tattoos."  
He sat back down in his (swively) chair, leaning back to watch the class. He noticed the red haired boy, Gerard was it? Still had his head down but a small smile appeared on his face when he read what Frank had written on the board.  
Frank checked the time on his watch and realised the bell would be going in 5 minutes,  
"Alright class, I've given you more than enough time to write all that down, so, do I have any volunteers to collect those sheets in? No? Okay, Max, Gerard, collect them in, and if you finish before the bell I'll give you both a merit each."  
Frank grinned at the end of the sentence, he could get used to being a teacher here. Max turned back around to face the front, looking at Frank with a shocked face as if he weren't used to having someone tell him what to do, and Gerard's head snapped up to look up at Frank, with a look more of surprise that he'd been noticed than anything else. Frank just tapped his watch, then leaned back in his chair again.  
The two boys had almost ran around the classroom trying to collect all the slips of paper in before the bell went and Max managed to finish, slamming the pile of papers down on the table in front of Frank just as the bell went.  
"Thank you Max, Gerard. Class dismissed." And all the kids rushed out, racing to get to the canteen and "fight off" all the lower years who may try to steal their seats.  
Frank had thought all his pupils had gone so had slouched down in his chair, resting his head in his arms trying to catch a quick nap in the 20 minute break they had before his 2nd class of the day, so was obviously shocked when a timid voice said,  
"Mr Iero?"  
His head shot up and he almost pushed his pens off his desk, but he quickly collected himself as he eyed the student who was stood in front of him.  
"Oh, Gerard," he sighed rubbing his eye, leaning back into his chair again, "did you need something?"  
"No... well, uh, yes, kind of?" He stuttered out, not sure how to form the sentence. He didn't need anything, as such.  
"Well go on," Frank coaxed, trying to seem as kind as possible,  
"I used to sit in this room with, uh, with my friends last year is it okay if we do the same this year too?" He mumbled out. That was when Frank noticed some brightly coloured heads peaking round the music room door.  
"I'm guessing that's them," he said gesturing to the faces from the doorway that disappeared quickly once they had been noticed, "and yes of course you can sit in here."  
"Thank you sir!" Gerard said before speed walking over to where his friends were 'hiding' and dragged them out, muttering something or other to them.  
The blue haired girl came out from behind Gerard and introduced herself,  
"Hi I'm Hayley!" Before bouncing off to perch on one of the desks. He recognised her from his first class.  
"I'm Chrissy," a short pink haired girl said, flashing a grin as she joined Hayley. A bleach-blonde haired boy came round the doorway, wearing black skinny jeans also, but they were cuffed, making Frank believe that they may be a woman's fit pair of pants.  
"Patrick, but you can call me Patty," he said smiling. He had a (Black) denim jacket on with a logo on the back, an 'a' with a ring around it, like a rocket had just flown around it. (a/n not Patrick stump a guy called patty walters from as it is)  
One more boy walked in before pushing to door too behind him with his foot,  
"Heya I'm Awsten," he said and smiled bashfully. He too had dyed hair, a very faded blue and Frank could guess it would be a different colour by the next week.  
"Well, I'm Frank, fuck, sorry no I'm Mr Iero for those of you who didn't know."  
"Soo... you're Frank." Awsten said, grinning mischievously.  
Frank had a feeling that as sweet as this boy looked on the outside, he could probably be very persistent and very annoying when he wanted to.  
Frank groaned in frustration, flopping back onto the desk in front of him, "Fine." he accepted, he really couldn't be bothered arguing and he knew that Awsten would call him Frank anyway, so what was the point in correcting him?  
The group of friends talked about whatever teenagers talk about in their free time, and Frank just pulled up Microsoft PowerPoint to start making lesson plans for the rest of the year. He had just about finished the first half terms worth by the time the bell went.  
Frank looked up from where he was sitting to find the friends still sat where they had been all break time, completely ignoring the bell.  
"Guys," Frank said, clearing his throat slightly, "the bell has gone, and you need to get to class." He continued, trying to sound as 'Teachery' as possible.  
Awsten looked over at him, smirking, "you haven't checked your register have you?"  
Frank just rolled his eyes, "you're all on it, aren't you?" And a chorus of agreements came back at him.  
"Ah, okay then, well same as before, just sit wherever I don't mind." Frank breathed out. He stood up, walked across the room and pulled open the door again, pushing a door-stop under it to prevent it from closing again.  
"Whoa!" one of the students whispered, but was still loud enough for Frank to hear,  
"Yes?" He said looking over.  
"It's nothing, really," Frank raised an eyebrow, "You're just really, short..." Patty said trailing off,  
"Hey! Short is good!" Chrissy said, giving Patty a thump on the arm.  
\--  
Over the course of the next term the group of friends became close with the Music teacher, sharing funny moments together and messing around in their free time. Frank showed them pictures of him when he used to be in a band in his teens and the group laughed at the idea of Frank with short hair, considering it was almost shoulder length now, and they constantly joked about his height, despite the fact that Gerard was the only average sized person, all the rest of them being quite short themselves.  
Frank also found himself spending a lot of his time with Gerard after school. Gerard, bless him, he was a good kid, who just never did his homework. He behaved in lessons, completed all his work to a high standard and was on time to lessons, but he never did any of his homework which landed him in after school detention for the majority of the week, and Frank had no idea why.  
\--  
Gerard found himself yet again in the Music room as he had been given another yellow slip to "give to his parents" to let them know he would be staying late after school. Again.  
He wandered the halls until he came to the familiar room and could see the black-haired teacher inside from the small window.  
He knocked twice, letting Frank know he was there, then pushed open the door and perched himself on the furthest table from the teacher, and the closest to the door.  
"Oh, Gerard, It's you again." Frank said, looking up and smiling. Frank had taken a certain fondness to Gerard on the first day and it had stuck with him ever since.  
"Yep it's me, I dunno who else you might've been expecting." Gerard replied a small smile on his face as he glanced up at the teacher before focusing back on the ground again.  
"What homework haven't you done this time?"  
"Math, I hate math, did you know that? Its awful! When am I actually ever going to use quadratic formula in real life?"  
"Yes Gerard, you tell me that every time you walk in here," Frank said with a small chuckle, smiling fondly at the student, "Do you want any help with it?" He asked, even though he knew full well that Gerard could do it himself, but also knowing Gerard wasn't going to do it if he was left to himself to do it so the pair had come to an unspoken agreement that Frank would help with Gerard's homework if Gerard tried whilst doing it and promised to hand it in to whichever teacher asap.  
"Yeah, why not," Gerard shrugged, and rummaged in his bag, producing a crumpled sheet. "It's trig," He said, scrunching up his face and holding the sheet out in front of him as if it were going to try and bite him and walked across the classroom towards Frank, dropping the sheet on his desk.  
"Well I can see why your math teacher wouldn't accept this," Frank laughed, flipping the paper in his hands, and snorting when he saw a coffee stain on it.  
"Look, it's really simple if you just remember SOH CAH TOA," he said, writing out the letters at the top of the page, the middle letter above and between the outside two.  
"Yeah, I know, but ugh" Gerard whined, "Its so boring."  
"Yes, I am aware of that Gerard, there's a reason I decided to be a music teacher instead of a math teacher and you've still gotta do it, whether you like it or not." Frank said firmly before continuing with how to go trig.  
"SOH means Sine(Angle)=opposite/hypotenuse, you with me?"  
"Uh-huh" Gerard hummed.  
"Okay, so what's the opposite?" Frank asked, leaning forwards so he was leaning on his elbows, and looked over at Gerard, resting his cheek on his hands.  
Gerard, who had since pulled up a chair to sit next to the young teacher, pointed to one of the triangle sides, "'s that one,"  
"And why is it that one?"  
"'cause it's opposite from the angle,"  
"It's opposite TO the angle, yes," Frank corrected.  
This continued, with Frank 'helping' Gerard with his Math homework. They ended up overrunning on the after det but finished Gerard's homework.  
"Gerard, if you ever need to stay behind so you can do your homework with me then you can you know,"  
"Yeah, yeah I know, you tell me that every time I walk in here," Gerard smirked bashfully, repeating what Frank had said to him earlier.  
"Oh shush now young man stop with the sass," Frank joked, smushing his index finger up against Gerard's lips. The younger man flicked his tongue out and licked Frank's finger, making the teacher pull away in disgust and wipe his (now wet) finger on Gerard.  
"Ewwww, Gerard," Frank whined, "that was disgusting," he said and wrinkled his nose up.  
Gerard's hands came up, patting all over the older mans' face "shh shh shh shh," he whispered.  
"Gerard,"  
"Yes,"  
"One, get your hands off my face, two, it's probably time you go, I don't want your parents getting worried about you and phoning the school,"  
Gerard slowly removed his hands, sliding them down so they came to rest back on the table in front of him,  
"Nah, my mum doesn't give a shit about how late I stay out, I'm fine,"  
"Gerard, seriously, if you have time now, I want you to tell me why you don't ever do your homework, unless I'm here to help you do it,"  
"I dunno, I just never feel like doing it I guess," Gerard shrugged, messing with his fingers in his lap, and watching them intensely.  
"Gerard, you don't have to if you don't want to, but I would like it very much if you would tell me the truth. Why don't you do your homework?" He pressed.  
Gerard was silent for a few minutes.  
"Gerard you can go if you want to, I don't need to know," Frank said, thinking he'd pushed a boundary.  
The boy drew in a shaky breath and brought his hoodie sleeves up to his eyes, drying them from the tears Frank didn't know were there.  
"No, no it's - it's okay I can tell you," he let out a long breath, almost as if he were debating going back on his words.  
"I- I don't technically have a home, my parents have split up, and my dad moved to England to start a new life. My mom, she, uh, she doesn't like me very much so, uh, she kicked me out, for a-a-a lot of reasons b-but ma-main-ly"  
Frank cut in here as he could sense the apprehension of Gerard telling him and could see he was getting quite worked up about it, tears were streaming down his face. The young teacher pulled Gerard into his lap, wrapping his arms protectively around him and stroking his red hair in an attempt to calm him down making soothing noises whilst doing so.  
"Gerard I promise, I'm not going to be mad at you if you don't tell me, you don't have to say if you don't want to,"  
Gerard let out a few choked sobs, balling Frank's shirt up in his fists and leaned his head into Frank's chest and Frank quietly rocked him back and forth, just letting him cry. The tear slowed and Frank lifted Gerard's chin and used the pads of his thumbs he wiped away the wetness from under Gerard's eyes. This was the first time he had gotten a good look at the boy and Frank could see now the obvious bags under his eyes alongside with the fact the boys' hair was in need of a wash.  
"Frank, trust me, I want you to know, that's why I've stayed. And you're possibly one of the only people I trust with this."  
Frank was taken back, he knew it had to be something going on at home, but didn't know exactly what, and didn't know how serious it might be, but Gerard's tone gave away all the answers to his questions.  
"My mom, she kicked me out, but I've been sneaking back, late at night, to get all my stuff. There's an abandoned warehouse just down the road from where I used to live, and there's an office room in there where I guess I'm living now.  
"I've got most of my stuff there and I guess that's where I live now; but I'm begging you please don't tell anyone because they'll take me away a-a-and," Gerard said, breaking down again.  
"Oh, Gerard." Frank sighed, enveloping Gerard in a hug again, "I know you're going to object, so hear me out before you say anything, okay?" And Gerard nodded slowly,  
"I want you to come and live with me, just for a short while so we can find you a proper place to stay, we can move all your belongings, and don't worry I have a spare room that I don't use that you can."  
"O-okay," Gerard hiccuped, still resting his head on the teachers collar.  
Frank guided Gerard out of the classroom, out of the school and helped him into his car. He drove back to his house, where he carried the younger boy out of the car and into his house as he had fallen asleep on the ride home. The young teacher lay Gerard down on his couch - his spare room was a bit of a tip, and he had planned on moving and getting rid of some of the crap in there, which he did, shoving the majority of it under the bed or just moving it into a 'neat' pile in the corner of the room. After he finished clearing it out he went back downstairs to wake Gerard so they could go and get all his stuff.  
"Gerard? Hey Gerard do you wanna go get your stuff?" Frank said, shaking Gerard's shoulder slightly, but when the sleeping boy didn't wake, Frank decided it would just be best to let him sleep - he looked like he needed it - and besides, it was Friday so they could always go and get it tomorrow.  
Frank picked up Gerard under the arms and around the back of his knees (in bridal style if you will) and carried him upstairs and lay him in the spare bed, pulling the duvet over him (obviously taking his shoes off before doing this), then taking himself off to bed.  
\--  
Frank was woken in the early hours of the morning, two, maybe three am by a figure stood over him. He yelped in his weary state and scrambled to pull the duvet to cover him - as if that would save him if a murderer was coming to kill him. The figure started giggling quietly as Frank's body relaxed and he realized who it was.  
"Oh, Gerard, 'm sorry, did you want something?" Frank asked, rubbing a hand across his face as he fell back against his mattress, calming down significantly.  
"yeah, um, I was wondering if I could come and sleep with you tonight? 'm scared of the dark..." Gerard trailed off, mumbling the last bit as he was embarrassed and a dark blush stained his cheeks but luckily it was dark so Frank couldn't see that.  
"Yeah, of course Gee," Frank replied, shuffling over and holding the duvet up for Gerard to climb in, so obviously he had heard the last part of the sentence, "I'm only wearing boxers though, so I hope you don't mind..." Frank said, this time he was the one who was trailing off. Gerard's cheeks heated up again as he thought about it - He'd never seen Frank in anything other than his work clothes (Apart from that one day when there had been a school trip and Frank had basically blended in with the students, wearing ripped jeans and a hoodie), but Gerard contained himself and just nodded. He sat on the side of the bed, persuading himself to get into bed with the other man. His whole body stiffened when he felt Frank's hand come to rest on his hip, but slowly relaxed against it although, he still couldn't bring himself to lie down.  
He had had an awful nightmare, about his past life of when he was living with his mom and of how she used to abuse him to stop him doing just about anything and everything. And the worst part was that it was so vivid he could almost feel the pain from the blows he received in his dream and simply couldn't bring himself to lie down again. Whilst in thought, Frank had moved in the bed and had sat behind Gerard, and what pulled Gerard from his thoughts was the warmth of the body behind him.  
Frank had slipped his arms around Gerard's waist, letting his legs fall on either side of Gerard's body and had his chin resting on Gerard's shoulder. He hadn't forgotten how the boy had frozen when Frank had simply touched him with his hand, but he didn't even flinch this time, instead he just leaned his head back so it was resting on Frank's shoulder and the pair just sat like that. In complete silence and in complete comfort. Until Frank decided he was getting cold and grabbed a Misfits hoodie from the end of his bed to throw on.  
"Do you wanna lie down?"  
"No, not really." Gerard wanted to say, but he did lay down on his side anyway, just so he knew Frank could go back to sleep, even if he couldn't.  
The shorter man crawled back into bed behind Gerard, pulling up the covers over the two of them and letting his hand come to rest over Gerard's waist again. Gerard heard Frank's breathing slowly even out and knew he was asleep again. Gerard ran his hand over Frank's, intertwining their fingers and he finally felt safe, as if Frank had delivered some sort of shield against the world to Gerard and the boy soon drifted off to sleep as well, their hands still intertwined.


	2. 2. Friends

Frank felt awful for Gerard. He really did. The poor kid had been surviving on next to nothing for the past 2 months. Frank had found out that Gerard had a weekend job, and worked in a café sometimes after school, and to try and maximize his income, he even worked in a club behind the bar, despite the fact he was way to young to be doing so.  
So, Frank made Gerard a deal.   
"Gerard, if you drop your job at the club, stop working at the café," he paused when he saw Gerard frantically shaking his head, "Okay, not work so often there and start doing your homework-"  
"I do do my homework though!"  
"on time then you can permanently live at my house. Okay?" Frank asked. Gerard nodded vigorously, before pausing, his brows pulling together.  
"How am I going to pay rent though? I need to do something to be able to pay you back!" He said, and Frank just smiled lightly and shook his head with Gerard staring wide-eyed at Frank like he was crazy for not wanting anything.  
"As long as you start doing your homework properly, then I'm happy for you to live here." Frank shrugged, turning away to make himself a coffee, "Want some?"   
"Oo yes please!" Gerard exclaimed, running over to where Frank was now leaning on the kitchen counter-top.   
"Only if you tell me what homework you have first." Frank smirked, moving the mug so it was out of Gerard's grasp.  
"Ugh," the younger boy moaned out, "I have math," he made a gun with his hand and 'shot' himself, "and English and maybe a bit of chemistry I think too."  
"aren't you forgetting anything?" Frank asked, raising his eyebrow.  
"Uhh..." Gerard trailed off, looking at the ceiling in though, "I don't think so, no." he said finally.  
"Not maybe, even, possibly, some music?"   
Gerard smirked, "Nah, I don't think so."  
Frank just rolled his eyes and turned so he could finish making the coffees, passing one of the mugs to Gerard when he was done and Gerard took a small sip of the hot liquid.  
"Well, Gerard, since its the weekend, I was thinking maybe we could get some of your homework out of the way, Yes?" Frank asked, peering at Gerard over his own mug.  
Gerard groaned, flopping back on one of the armchairs dramatically, but nodded slightly, staring back at the older man.   
"Right-y-oh then, lets crack on with it then!" Frank exclaimed chirpily, jumping up after carefully placing his coffee mug on the countertop. Gerard groaned again, rolling his eyes and Frank.  
"Why are you so happy? It's literally 9.30 am there is no reason to be awake right now, oh, and the homework sheets are in my bag... somewhere." Gerard said, vaguely gesturing to where his school rucksack was.  
Frank rushed over to his rucksack and carried it over to where Gerard was reclining in Frank's lounge. He then unzipped the bag and tipped out the entire contents of the bag at Gerard's feet.   
There was about 5 school books in there, along with a reading book; Silence Is Goldfish, and plastic ziplock bag with 2 biros a pencil and a small dinosaur shaped rubber (eraser). A half-eaten sandwich from Tesco (in its carboard box) and an empty bottle of pepsi also fell out of the bag on top of the small pile of 'crap' that had also been living in Gerard's bag. There was another, smaller, pocket inside the bag that had been zipped up, but it felt like there was a book or something still in there.  
Frank unzipped the inside pouch and pulled out a worn black sketchbook. the bindings on it were falling apart, and sheets of paper had been stuffed scruffily inside it. Gerard, who had previously been scrolling through some social media on his phone looked up, in horror when he saw the book in Frank's hands.  
"Gee, what's this?" Frank had asked displaying the cover to the boy before it got swiped out of his hands and Gerard pressed it between his thighs, so Frank wouldn't try to get to it.  
"Nothing," he scowled, turning away from Frank slightly. Frank knew it wasn't a school book - each subject had its own color, Maths; blue, English; yellow, Physics; red, Biology; dark green, and so on and so forth. Albeit Art did have black sketchbooks, but they were just the cheap-o ones that you could find in any old shop, and even if Gerard did take art - and Frank could've sworn he did - the book would be no where near as worn and damaged as the one that he had just found.   
Frank just nodded slightly before backing off so he could crouch and pick up the books scattered on the carpet. He neatly stacked them onto the coffee table, then asked Gerard if he was going to finish the sandwich, and Gerard just shook his head no.   
At this, Frank took the empty plastic bottle and sandwich to his kitchen to throw away, then pottered upstairs so he could get dressed properly.  
He had a quick shower, and shaved when he got out, since his stubble was already making itself known on his jaw. He then dried himself and got dressed, pulling on his usual outfit of some dark grey sweatpants and a plain black t-shirt. He pushed his long hair back under a headband to keep it out of his face. He then grabbed his favourite grey cardigan and pulled it on as he walked back downstairs.   
Gerard snorted when Frank came back into view again, "You look like a grandpa who's trying to be cool but really isn't cool, geez," Frank just bobbed his head, possibly in agreement.  
"Well at least I'm not wearing the same clothes as yesterday that I also didn't sleep in, and ive now had a shower so I don't stink." Frank called over his shoulder, a smirk evident on his face as he walked into his small kitchen, to make himself another coffee.   
Gerard lifted one arm above his head, sniffing at his armpit, "Hey! I don't smell that bad!" He said as he jumped up, following Frank into the kitchen, grabbing his emty mug on the way.  
"Sure you don't," Frank smiled, "the shower is upstairs, 2nd door on the left if you wanna make use of it."  
"Fine, I will." Gerard grumbled, walking away to go and have a shower "Please can I have another coffee for when I'm finished? Thanks." He called from the top of the stairs.   
Frank just rolled his eyes and smiled, of course he'd want another coffee, and of course Frank was going to make one for him.  
Gerard soon returned, a towel wrapped around his head to keep his wet hair from falling in his face and another wrapped around his waist, that he was holding up with one hand, a deep blush spread across his cheeks.   
"Frank?"  
"Mh-hmm?" Frank hummed, not looking up from his phone from where he was leaning on the counter and stirring a coffee with his other hand.  
"Do you, by um, any chance have any spare clothes I can borrow? Just for today and we can go and get my stuff from y'know..." He said, trailing off when he saw Frank looking over at him. That small action, of Frank looking at him, made him painfully aware of how much of his usually covered skin was showing. His grip on the towel tightened and he chewed on his lip nervously waiting for Frank to answer.   
Frank finally managed to snap himself out of the daze he was in by blinking then taking a gulp of the hot liquid, also known as coffee.  
"Shit, ow, yeah, sure, I think I have some clothes you can use," He said, walking past Gerard, and up the stairs, towards his room, the first door on the left, and opened the door, holding it for Gerard to walk in after him. Gerard gazed around the room in awe, you wouldn't believe Frank was out of his 'emo phase' yet from looking at all the posters scattered around his room, but they were arranged in such a way that they were strangely satisfying to look at.   
Frank appeared in front of Gerard again with a pair of skinny jeans and a plain black shirt, and held the pieces of clothing out to him.   
"Here you go," He smiled, "I'm not sure how well these will fit so, uh, sorry about that."  
Gerard smiled awkwardly and took the clothes off Frank before thanking him quietly and turning to leave Frank's room.   
"Wait!" Gerard paused, and turned to look at the older man, "I didn't give you any underwear," Gerard blushed, "Do you need any underwear?" Frank asked, ignoring the fact that Gerard resembled a tomato. The younger boy nodded, so Frank turned to the chest of drawers next to him, rooting through to find a pair of boxers for the boy to wear.   
"AhA! Here you go." He said finally, waving the underwear around in the air obnoxiously before passing them Gerard, apparently oblivious to the awkwardness Gerard felt in that moment, or he was just really good at hiding how awkward he too felt.   
Gerard muttered another quick thank you, before (almost) running from the room and into the spare room, which Frank was allowing him to stay in.   
Frank returned down the stairs, back to his - much cooled - coffee that was now drinkable and let himself flop back onto the worn couch. He leant over and pulled one of Gerard's books off his coffee table and flicked through it, until a sheet fell out onto his chest. The top of the sheet was titled "HOMEWORK due on THURS"  
Frank skimmed over the words, the homework was to write a short story, could be on anyone or anything but it had to include the sentence "(s)he paused, (s)he could feel the hairs on the back of his(her) neck rising, and chills ran through his(her) body-"  
"What are you doing?" A voice came from the doorway. Frank's eyes snapped up to look at the boy in front of him.  
"What does it look like I'm doing?" He asked calmly, "I said we would get started on your homework so its out of the way, so I'm having a look to see what we need to do." Gerard just nodded, coming to sit on the armchair near the end of the sofa where Frank's head was and leant forwards, so his elbows were on his knees and his hands were supporting his head.  
"Oh, English?" Gerard asked as his eyes skimmed over the homework task. Frank nodded.   
"She said it was to be used as prep for our end of years/GCSEs but I don't think I need to do it because I already write short stories like that all the time, so its not really going to help-"  
"Gerard, I know you're going to hate me, but you have to do your homework, whether you like it or not. I know you're an extremely talented writer, especially when it comes to creative writing, but that doesn't change the fact that you still have homework that needs doing." Frank sighed, turning his head to look at Gerard.   
Gerard opened his mouth, as if he were going to say something, but Frank got there first and cut him off, "Unless, you have a short story, that you've already written, and could put that sentence in it."   
Gerard shut his mouth, and sat there in thought for a moment before nodding slowly. "I do, actually, but, the notebook I wrote it in is still at my mums house, so..." He said, trailing off and grimacing when he spoke of his mum.   
"Oh, okay, maybe we can look at that one later then?" Frank asked softly, knowing that Gerard's mum was a touchy subject. Gerard nodded, his eyes lowered to the ground and his hair falling over his face. Frank re-folded the sheet and placed it back into the book, laying it down on the carpet beside him, then leaning back over to the coffee table and grabbing the next book off the pile, which happened to be blue so Frank knew that it was Math. Oh boy, Gerard was going to love him.  
(Yes I know Gerard has now had two sheets of math homework but we're gonna say they were set as revision practice and this is on a different topic okay?)  
Frank pulled out the crumpled sheet from the back of the book and smoothed it out against his lap, then lifting it up so he could read it. This time the questions were on angles and circle theorems, and god, did Frank remember hating doing these when he learnt how to do them.   
"Do you mind doing these on your own?" Frank asked, twisting to look at Gerard.  
"No, I don't mind, why?" He said with a small smile.  
"Because I hate these, they're awful. Not to mention incredibly boring and repetitive, why do you even need these in life anyway?" Frank returned, a small giggle at the end.  
"I don't know! Ask the math teachers and government that!" Gerard grinned.  
Gerard pulled the sheet out of Frank's hands and studied it for a moment, "You got a pen I can borrow?"   
"Shouldn't you have one?" Frank retorted.  
Gerard rolled his eyes and leant forwards, grabbing his bag and unzipping the front pocket and pulling out a chewed biro, then straight away scribbled something on the paper. He then placed the end of the biro in his mouth, chewing on it slightly and staring hard at the paper and scribbling something on it again.  
Gerard continued this, in a repetitive manner, and Frank just lay and watched. He wasn't going to deny it, Gerard was mesmerizing to watch, how he didn't really hold his pen properly, it was a very delicate pinch between his forefinger and thumb, and he sometimes bounced it so it looked like the pen was wobbling and bending, then replacing it between his lips, and how he would bounce his knee softly when he was thinking, and that certain softness of the bounces would become more jumpy as Gerard spent longer thinking over a question, but it was a very subconscious thing he seemed to be doing.   
—   
By the time Gerard had finished all his homework (yes, including the music and excluding the English) it was almost lunch time.   
Gerard's stomach grumbled loudly pulling him from his thoughts. He looked around, expecting Frank to still be lying on the couch, but he wasn't, not anymore. Gerard twisted in his seat, turning to look into the kitchen / dining room and saw that the slightly shorter man was sat on the counter top eating a sandwich of some sort. So, of course, he put his homework down, and wandered over to Frank, eyeing his sandwich hungrily.  
"If 'ou wan one 'ou can ge 'our ow." Frank said, through a mouthful of his very delicious looking sandwich.   
"'M sorry, what?" Gerard replied with a giggle. Frank just held up his finger, and chewed through the mouthful of sandwich that was in his mouth.   
"If you want one, you can get your own. This one is mine." He said defiantly. Gerard just snorted and raised an eyebrow.   
"Bread, butter, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes," Frank pointed to where everything was kept as he said it, "knives, plates, cups."   
"Thank youuuu." Gerard sang as he swayed over to the fridge, pulling out the majority of the ingredients that Frank had just listed, then turned to the cupboard in front of Frank and pulled out the bread. He then grabbed a knife, plate and glass from out of a cupboard above Frank's head and placed them on the counter next to him. He carried on, making a sandwich as you do and Frank continued eating his.   
"'ve you finished your homework?"   
Gerard grinned, "Yeah! Well, all but English but that won't take long to do." He said proudly, pausing from making his sandwich to look at Frank. After all, the slightly older man was a teacher, so Gerard almost felt the need to get approval off Frank that he had done the right thing.   
Frank finished the bite he was eating and smiled over at Gerard, "it feels good, doesn't it?" The boy nodded.   
"I'm so proud of you." Frank said gently, the smile still evident on his face, although it was a more gentle smile. Frank leaned over and pulled Gerard into a hug, and Gerard - who wasn't expecting it - froze up, not moving from where he was holding the buttered knife against a slice of bread. He wasn't used to physical contact, well, not the nice form of physical contact. He was used to being beaten up and hit whenever someone went to touch him.   
Frank eventually moved away, so he could have another bite of his sandwich and seemed completely unaware of how awkward Gerard had just felt. Either that or he was purposely ignoring it.   
—  
(Back at school on Monday)   
Gerard was wearing Frank's clothes again, as all his had had to go in the wash as they were all dirty. And most of the students didn't notice, his friends did though.   
"Gerard! Hey! How was your weekend? I went to see Fall Out Boy again, they're really good you should come see them with me sometime on their next tour!" Gerard just bobbed his head along to his friends babbling as they walked down the corridor to their form room, "Gee are those new clothes?"   
Gerard looked up, trying to hide the panic on his face, although it didn't work too well. "These? No I've had these for ages I don't know what you're talking about." He rushed out, laughing awkwardly at the end. Patty raised an eyebrow at him, clearly not believing him.  
"Sure you have." He replied, with a small giggle, "you wear the same hoodie every day Gerard, they must be-" his head shot round when he saw his crush, Ben, walking towards them, going in the opposite direction.   
"Shit shit shit do I look okay?" Patty panicked, forgetting about their conversation and looking to Gerard wildly and smoothing his hands over his hair. Gerard grabbed his friends hands, and pushed them down to his sides.   
"Patty, you look great, stop messing with your hair it looks fine. I promise you."   
"Thank y-"  
"Heya Patty, Gerard." Ben said, winking at the smaller boy as he walked past and giving a small wave to Gerard.  
"Hi." Patty squeaked out after him. Gerard just rolled his eyes. He really didn't understand why Patty liked him so much, I mean, Ben was probably the biggest fuckboy in the entire school, and despite him being really intelligent, he never did anything in classes or for his homework, and he often bunked off school to do who knows what - probably something illegal according to the rumours - which gave him this big bad boy reputation, with the kids and the teachers.   
Ben just smirked over his shoulder and continued on his way to wherever down the corridor, glancing back at Patty when he turned a corner. And only at this point did Patty basically scream at Gerard,  
"Oh my god he spoke to me oh gosh I think I'm going to faint did you see his hair it looked so good today? I wish my hair was as nice as his and his eyes, oh my I love his eyes and that smile, Gerard did you see his smile? It's so perfect!" Patty rambled on, as Gerard as directed him to the room the had originally been going to.   
—  
Gerard waited in the music room for Frank, it was where they had agreed to meet, but he had been waiting for nearly half an hour and was starting to worry.   
He jumped when he heard a door slam open, quite suddenly, and a few seconds later the music room door opened too. With the same velocity.   
Gerard watched from the table he was sat on as Frank stormed across the room, absolutely seething for some unbeknownst reason.   
"I told that stupid fucking bitch that I had to go home straight after school but what does she do? Put me in a meeting like the fucking fuck she is. And then what does she do? Tries to fucking hit on me for the entire meeting like the little shit she is despite the fact I've told her I'm gay and I don't like girls whatsoever multiple times. I don't even know where Gerard fucking is anymore because of her." He ranted to himself whilst throwing things angrily into his bag. He stood up and threw his bag over his shoulder pausing for a moment to look over the room.   
His eyes flicked over where Gerard was sat before he realised Gerard was still there and his features softened, "Oh Shit, Gerard, hi," and Gerard offered a small smile in return.   
"I was just leaving if you, uh, wanna grab a ride home?" He asked the corners of his mouth twitching up hopefully.   
Gerard just nodded and grabbed his bag off the table where it had been next to him and went to stand next to the teacher, "Lead the way," he grinned.   
An awkward silence fell over the car as Frank drove back to his house. He was well aware that Gerard had heard everything he'd ranted about, and that Gerard now knew he was gay. Not that Frank cared that much but he would have liked to have told Gerard himself to make sure he had a positive reaction to that news.   
Frank was usually able to ignore any tension or awkwardness that he got himself into and didn't know what to do, but eventually though, 'Hey, what doesn't music solve?' And leant over gerard to the glovebox and pulling out a cd, not really caring what it was. He flipped the case open and passed it to Gerard.   
"Please can you put that in there please?" He asked, pointing to the cd slot above the gearstick.   
Gerard didn't reply, but he did pop the cd out of its case and push it into the slot, waiting for Frank to do something with it. He pressed the play button and turned the sound up a bit before a guitar solo faded in on the sound system of the car.   
"Oh my god I love this song!" Gerard exclaimed excitedly looking over at Frank.   
(A/n pls tell me what song you first thought of before I tell you what song it is)  
Bruce Dickinson's voice came through the sound system after the guitar, and Gerard subconsciously started singing along with it.   
Frank lived about half an hour away from the school, and it looked like there was going to be traffic tonight, so it would possibly take longer than usual.   
"Infinite dreams, I can't deny them," Gerard sang quietly. And Frank couldn't deny it, Gerard had an amazing voice.   
"Infinity is hard to comprehend, I could hear those screams even in my wildest dreams."   
Frank joined in along with Gerard. The younger boy looked over at Frank smiling, and singing slightly louder and the pair eventually came to a point where they were singing as loud as they could along with Frank's favourite band as Frank turned the sound up bit by bit.   
The CD was actually a mix-tape of all of Frank's favourite rock songs, and the next was Crazy Train (by Ozzy Osbourne) and the two started head banging to the start of the song, receiving rather strange looks from passers by.   
—  
"Gerard?"   
"Yeah?" The younger boy called back. Frank was in the kitchen making some sort of food probably containing some sort of pasta.   
"You okay with having spag bol?"   
"Sure." Gerard replied, turning back to his work, a fond smile on his face as the shorter man continued cooking their dinner. Frank had finally decided to make the food at almost 10.30pm when he remembered (to quote his exact words): "Oh shit, I forgot you've got school tomorrow I need to make you food." And scrambled off the sofa to empty his kitchen cupboards to check he did actually have food.   
Because despite him being the 'responsible adult' he often forgot to cook himself a proper dinner, and usually settled for a half hearted sandwich at some absurd time of the night.   
The pair soon sat down at the small kitchen table to eat the meal Frank had somehow managed to whip up in less than half an hour and began to eat.   
"Ughh," Gerard moaned, "this is so good, I need to know the recipe"   
"Well, I'm glad you like it." Frank smirked, looking up at the younger boy. Gerard's hair had started falling over his face as he tucked in to the food, so Frank subconsciously leant over and tucked it behind his ear, a small smile spreading across both of their faces as they looked up at each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not that anyone cares but Frank's mixtape song list:   
> -Infinite Dreams - Iron Maiden  
> \- Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne   
> \- Highway To Hell - AC/DC  
> \- Animal - Def Leppard  
> \- Poison - Alice Cooper  
> \- Psycho - Muse  
> \- Starlight - Muse  
> \- Here I Go Again - Whitesnake  
> \- Living On A Prayer - Bon Jovi  
> \- You Give Love A Bad Name - Bon Jovi  
> \- Can I Play With Madness - Iron Maiden  
> \- Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin  
> \- Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana  
> \- Walk This Way - Aerosmith   
> \- Another Brick In The Wall - Pink Floyd  
> \- Nothing Else Matters - Metallica  
> \- Welcome To The Jungle - AC/DC  
> \- Sweet Child 'O Mine - AC/DC  
> \- I Love Rock 'N' Roll - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts   
> \- Basket Case - Green Day  
> \- Paradise City - Guns 'n Roses


	3. 3. Friends

"Gerard!"

"GERARD!" 

Gerard turned to see a very worried looking Frank crouched next to his bed.  
"Are you okay? I think you were having another nightmare." Frank continued when he realised Gerard has woken up, he tilted his head to look at the younger boy who was now propped up on his elbows, staring wide-eyed at Frank.

"Gee?" 

"Yeah? oh, shit, yeah I - I'm fine, don't worry." He said giving Frank a shaky smile. Frank raised an eyebrow, knowing Gerard was lying but didn't question it, and stood to leave the room.

"Wait! Wait," 

"Yes?" Frank turned his body slightly so he was side on to Gerard and leant against the door frame.

"Could you, uh, actually it doesn't matter you can go, night." Gerard let himself fall back onto the bed and turned his face away as he changed his mind and decided against what he was going to ask. Frank was already being nice enough by allowing him to stay in his house, and all that extra jazz, he didn't need to be baby-sat as well. 

"What? Gerard you know me, of all people, I'm not going to judge you, if I was going to do that I'd have done it a long time ago." Frank let out a breath, he was one of those people who worried excessively about people he cared about but never really knew how to express it. 

"You - could you stay? Here..." Gerard winced as he replied, not wanting Frank to say no. 

"Did you really think I'd turn down that, Gee?" Frank smiled, resting his head on his arms as he crouched next to the bed again, "now, are you gonna shove over yourself or am I going to have to shove you over?" 

Gerard giggled, covering his mouth with his hand, and moved to the far side of the bed, pulling back the covers for Frank to climb in. Luckily Frank was wearing plaid pyjama bottoms this time, although wasn't wearing anything on his top half , which Gerard soon realised when Frank cuddled up next to him.   
The older man let out a small exhale of air before snuggling just that little bit closer to Gerard, his eyes already closed.   
Now, Gerard knew Frank was, gay, but he didn't think of him as anything more than a friend? Did he? Friends always have sleepovers and cuddle up to each other, right?  
Gerard turned to look at back Frank, who was already snoring softly next to him, a piece of hair had fallen across his face and was being blown out with every exhale of breath. His stubble had started growing back, shading his jaw darker and now Gerard looked, Frank had bags under his eyes as well - he obviously needed the sleep.   
——————  
Gerard awoke to someone breathing softly onto his face. His eyes move upwards and he saw Frank with his face squished up against the pillow, his hair sticking up in various directions and a small bit of drool escaping the side of his mouth. But he didn't look bad, he looked quite cute, really.  
Wait, what?  
Gerard shook his head and rolled over, Frank's arm still loosely resting over his waist, his wrist bent but his hand was not touching the mattress, and if Gerard moved he would get tickled by Frank. 

"Hey... Gerard? You awake?" Franks hand twitched against Gerard's lowed abdomen so, naturally, the younger boy giggled slightly, before slapping his hand over his mouth and whispering back,

"Yeah, I am... why?"

"No reason." Frank started trailing small circles over Gerard's hip with his thumb subconsciously, and the younger boy moved back, into Frank, so they were spooning. Frank paused, but started rubbing the small circles again, slipping his hand up under Gerard's pyjama shirt, his hand moving up to Gerard's lower ribs. 

"Frank?" Franks hand stopped again.

"Yeah," he replied, almost hesitantly.

"How did you know you were gay?" Frank seemed to soften up again, and (somehow) shuffled closer to Gerard, so his mouth was right next to Gerard's ear. 

"I'm not one to be open about things like this, but I realized when I found I never wanted to do anything with my girlfriend at the time, Yeah I loved her, but not like that. And then someone new joined the school, my year, he was, is, called Finn, and he was a complete sweetheart to me. Everything about him had me questioning my sexuality because he seemed so perfect. 

"But like you know, nothings ever perfect. I broke up with my girlfriend to be with him, and then he, he..." Frank let out a sob, moving so his forehead rested between Gerard's shoulder blades. 

Gerard rolled over, so he could look at Frank again. He pulled the sleeves of his top over his hands and gently dabbed at the tears on Frank's face. 

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked, it was rude to pry, if you wanted to tell me I know you would have oh god I'm so-"

"No, thank you for not freaking out on me, you're the best honestly thank you," Frank cut gerard off from his babbling,

"But anyways," *hiccup*, "he, he cheated on me. We dated for four years and he cheated on me for the entire time, and every time with different guys as well." 

"Oh my god Frank, I'm so sorry!" Gerard whispered, pulling Frank into a hug. 

"No, it's okay, it wasn't a healthy relationship anyway. We both needed out but neither knew how to say so, but he eventually came clean and told me, and that's when I started working at your school. I wanted a fresh, new start, to meet new people, and I guess I did, I have met new, and totally amazing people who I'm so thankful for. And gerard, you're one of them." Frank lifted his head to look up at Gerard at his last sentence an smiled weakly, but it was still enough for his dimples to show through. 

"Huh, well I guess we've both come clean now haven't we," Frank continued after a minute with a small laugh and let his head rest down on Gerard's chest.

"I guess we have." Gerard confirmed, knotting his hand through Frank's hair and smoothing it down in a methodic pattern.

The pair were silent for a few minutes before Frank sprang up from the bed looking panicked, "shit what time is it?"   
Gerard tilted his wrist towards him so he could see the screen before answering, "its 9.37, why?"

"I've got to get to school! Oh god I'm gonna be late and Bruce is gonna fire me - he's already given me two warnings fuck-" Frank said quickly as he stalked around the room in small circles, his head clutched in his hands. 

"Frank-"

"I can't lose this job Gerard!" 

"FRANK, It's Saturday, you don't need to go to school, calm down."

"Oh." Frank said simply, his hands falling back to his sides and letting himself fall back onto the bed next to Gerard with a small 'oof' as he landed. His hand was resting on his chest and he looked up and smiled slightly at Gerard, who was still sat up but now staring off into the distance thinking about God knows what.   
Again, the room was silent for a few more minutes before Gerard spoke,

"Are you doing anything today?"

"Well I'm not going to school that's for sure." Frank replied with a small laugh, "But I do have to mark some of my kids' books, because I said I would and I'm such an awful teacher I haven't marked them in like three months or something." He laughed nervously, his eyes flitting up to Gerard then away again.

"Awh, you aren't an awful teacher, you're just a bit unorganized." Gerard replied looking down at Frank and giggling a bit after saying that.

"Pshh, shut up," Frank smiled turning Gerard's face away with his hand.

"Anywaysss," Gerard dragged out, looking back at Frank and pulling Frank's hand off his face, holding it down under his before continuing, "Can we do something? I don't have any homework to do," He smiled before muttering, "For once," then continuing, "Sooo, I thought, when you've finished marking all the books, we could go out somewhere? Maybe go into town or something I don't know..." Gerard trailed off, looking at Frank and waiting for an answer, but Frank was too busy staring at Gerard's hand clasped over his own.

"...Frank?"

"Oh, oh, yeah, sure, we can do that, yeah that sounds good." Frank finalized, pulling his gaze from his hand back up to Gerard's face.

"Yay! Okay, well you're going to need to get dressed then." Gerard replied with a smile, giving Frank a little shove and giggling again as his eyes widened in panic as he almost rolled off the bed. But Gerard caught him, by the waist, okay, well maybe it was his ass, but he quickly pulled away once he realized where he was holding onto and blushed deeply, looking away from Frank.  
Frank too was blushing, and quickly stood up to leave the room. 

"I should be done by 12 so, uh, if you still wanna go out then we can." Frank said awkwardly, as he paused at the doorway and turned to leave again.  
"Okay." Gerard called after him, getting up as well so he could close his door.   
\------------  
"What do you think?"

"This burger is so good oh my god I think I'm in heaven what the fu-dge..." Gerard moaned through the mouthful of burger. 

"You can swear, we aren't in school right now," Frank laughed, "And I know, this place is so good I honestly love it here."

"Thank fuck, and how have I never found this place." Gerard laughed along, his eyes crinkling up with his face.  
The pair soon finished their meal and called the waiter over for their bill.

"Pass me the receipt." Gerard said, holding his hand out for the flimsy bit of paper whilst digging in his small rucksack for his wallet.

"No."

"What? Why? I need to pay for my meal at least." Gerard whined, dropping his bag on the floor and lunging for the receipt over the table. He managed to grab it and held it behind him so Frank couldn't reach it and read down until he reached his order. With that he dropped the receipt back onto the table and pulled out a $20 note from his wallet, placing it down on top of the receipt.  
Frank frowned at him from across the table but seemingly gave in, that is, until the waiter came back, and Frank pulled his hand out from under the table, giving the waiter $50 and passing the receipt as well before Gerard could even think about uttering a single word so instead stared in amazement. Eyes wide and mouth dropped his eyes bounced between the waiter and Frank. 

"I thought I said I'd pay for mine," Gerard finally said looking towards Frank, before turning to the waiter, "here, this is for mine." And handing him the $20 he had gotten out before.   
The waiter smiled lightly, and turned, with the money and receipt to go and cash it into the till, soon returning with their change.  
Frank just sat and looked at it though, his hands clasped together in his lap and he gazed at the money for some time, then looked up to Gerard who was watching him just as intently. 

"I'm not taking your money."

"What? No, that's yours - I paid for mine." Gerard snapped back, adamant that he would still pay for his own food. Sometimes Frank's cool and calm demeanor could get on his nerves. 

"Well I'm not taking it. I paid for both of ours." Frank said, not twitching. 

"Fine. The waiter is just gonna get a big tip then." Gerard said, turning to pull his coat off the back of his seat, then standing so he could pull it on, not turning to look back at Frank. 

"Fine."

"Fine." 

"Maybe fine can be our always?" Frank giggled, running to catch up with Gerard whilst attempting to pull his coat on again, "and can we please stop arguing like an old married couple." He continued, finally walking like a normal person and tugging lightly on the sleeves of his leather jacket so they covered the tops of his hands.

"Fine." Gerard said, still not looking at Frank and smirking slightly. 

"Gee!" Frank whined back, hitting his arm, "stop being annoying!" 

"Fine." Gerard giggled, he was having way too much fun messing with Frank right now and he had no intentions of stopping.

"Gerard!" Frank whined again. He stopped and pouted crossing his arms in a defiant manner and glared at Gerard from under his lashes. 

"Yes?"   
Frank continued pouting. 

"Fine, fine! I'll stop okay, I was just having a bit of fun." Gerard laughed and Frank unfolded his arms and ran the short distance to catch up with Gerard. 

"Fucking three year old." Gerard muttered with a small smile to himself. Because who was really supposed to be the adult here? 

"Excuse me, what was that, Gerard?" 

"Nothing." Gerard sang back, grinning at the end.  
—————  
"Chinese or Dominos?"

"What?"

"For tea, what do you want, Chinese or Dominos?" Frank replied, still not looking up from his laptop. 

"Oh, okay, can we have dominos?"

"Sure, what toppings?" 

"Can I just have margarita?"

"No Gerard, you can't, how dare you ask." Frank said with a completely straight face, his eyes not leaving his computer screen again. 

"Oh... okay then I guess I-"

"Jesus, Gerard I was being sarcastic," Frank burst out, finally turning to look at Gerard, his face scrunched up from laughter. 

"Oh..." Gerard laughed along awkwardly, before properly laughing at how funny Frank looked curled up on the sofa. 

"I'll order it now then?" Frank asked once his laughter subsided and clicked onto the dominos website on his laptop. 

"Yeah, sure that sounds good." 

"'K then," he said slowly, concentrating so he could type the phone number into his phone, his eyes flicking back up to his computer screen ever few taps.   
Gerard focused back on the TV that had been running throughout the afternoon and evening, which was now on Big Bang Theory and Brooklyn 99 was on next so you could say Gerard was pretty happy.   
Soon enough the males were gorging themselves on pizza after the delivery girl had tried - and failed - to hit on Frank. 

"I'm not into girls." he said, "No, one night with you wont change my mind." he said. he then just shoved the money (exact change because he wasn't going to give that bitch a tip) into the girls open mouth and slammed the door shut.  
"Right then, shall we eat now?" he had asked falling back onto the sofa next to Gerard, the two pizza boxes in his hands. 

Gerard flipped open the box he had taken off Frank and tore a slice of pizza off, picking it up with both hands and taking a bite off the end.

"Yesterday was fun... Thank you." Gerard said, after finishing his pizza and putting the empty box on the coffee table infront of him.

"I'm glad," Frank hummed, following suit and placing his box on top of Gerard's, then pulled his legs up next to him so his feet were resting on the armrest, and he was half leaning on Gerard.

By the time Brooklyn 99 had finished Gerard was halfway to sleep and Frank had been completely knocked out, his head lay back resting on Gerards shoulder and his mouth hung open slightly with light snores being released every few seconds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay guys so that was that, I feel like its a bit of an awkward part to stop at but oh well, and by the way, if anyone didn't pick up the fact they 'go out' on Saturday, and they order pizza on the sunday, idk if anyone was actually confused about that but oh well there ya go 
> 
> also if anyone has wattpad I also use that quite a bit, my user is fxckmefrankie but I might change it to boisdontcri so if I do end up changing it then itll be one of those :)


	4. 4. Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this was so late :/ I meant to post it almost a week ago and forgot lol (but if you follow my wattpad I might update faster as that's where I save all my drafts (//fxckmefrankie))

"Okay class, so today, as part of your end-of-years we're going to be practicing the composition part of your exam. You'll get the next four weeks worth of lessons to work on this, and you'll have a set list of things you need to include in it." Frank explained, clapping his hands together before speaking to get his class' attention. He spun, so his back was to the class and wrote down the list onto the whiteboard, then turned back to the class with a grin on his face. 

"One last thing, before you get started, you have to work in pairs or threes, okay?" The class groaned, but nodded and looked around the room to find partners. 

Gerard and Awsten ended up working together and Frank chuckled at how different they were. Gerard with his black hoodies and ripped (very) skinny jeans and well-worn black converse, compared to Awsten, who had bright purple hair at the moment, a pastel coloured windbreaker on, a yellow shirt and a multicoloured necklace along with white skinny jeans and blue vans. 

But who was he to judge? They seemed to get along really well so there was no reason as to why he should intervene. 

There was keyboards on the tables around the room, as well as 3 electric guitars and some percussion instruments kept in the back cupboard for if anyone ever wanted to use them, which Awsten had immediately jumped up to grab one before sitting himself next to Gerard and lightly strumming on the instrument, absent-mindedly playing random chords as the pair spoke.

"Oh! Oh, wait I think I got something!" Awsten exclaimed, completely interrupting whatever he had previously been rambling about and concentrated on the chords he had just played coming out with a short tune. He looked back up at Gerard, who grinned back at him, as if he was encouraging him to go on, humming along with a tune he obviously thought went with it, and It did, quite well. The pair were obviously born musicians, or were trained non-stop since birth but Frank preferred to think that everyone was naturally talented in some way.

His eyes scanned around the rest of the room, letting them drift, seeing Max chatting, well, probably flirting, with one of the girls in the class, Emily Cannon, along with Patty ferociously blushing and avoiding eye contact with the long-haired boy opposite him as Ben tried to talk to him. Ben was also holding a guitar in his hands, letting his fingers skim over the fretboard playing small tunes, mostly classic rock guitar solos and Frank smiled to himself as he heard the guitar for Journey's Don't Stop Believin', and let his eyes wander on. 

Another group that caught his eye was Chrissy, along with her friends Dan and Will. Dan usually brought his own guitar to school, and Frank could only guess that was because he preferred to use his own than use the schools', Will was tapping out a beat onto his thighs, obviously a drummer but there was another guitar next to him, so Frank could also make a guess that Will could play both. 

When he looked back over at Gerard and Awsten and noticed the pair had stilled, had disgusted expressions on their faces and were looking over in the direction of Max and Emily. He followed their gaze to almost gag when he saw the pupils practically having sex in his classroom.

"Eh hem," Frank coughed, rapping his knuckles on their desk, not wanting to touch the pair. Max opened his eyes and pushed the girl off him a little bit. 

"I would very much appreciate it if you didn't, uh-"

"If we didn't what, Mr Iero?" Max cut him off but said so innocently and batted his eyelashes at the obviously uncomfortable teacher. 

"If you didn't make out with someone in my classroom like an overly hormonal teenage boy who cant keep his dick in his pants, Max." Frank smirked, and turned to walk back to his desk, leaning back on the wooden table and surveying the room once again. The boy didn't reply, so Frank took that as his chance to ignore the class for a few minutes until the end of the lesson and pulled his phone out of his pocket, having a quick scroll through his social media and checking the time. 

The lesson soon finished and he bid his students fairwell and told them that he expected them to be working on their project out of school if they could, because - in Frank's words - "the faster they get it right, the sooner they can do the fun stuff".

The students all filed out to go to their next class (the timetables has changed so he no longer had them just before a break time) and he slumped back onto his desk, his arms crossed with his forehead laying on top of them, planning on allowing himself to stay like that for the rest of the next period - since he didn't teach any classes then. 

"Um... excuse me... sir?" A familiar voice spoke.

"Gerard? I've told you you can call me Frank when no one else is around.." Frank mumbled, not lifting his head up. 

"Yeah... I know... but I thought 'cause we are in school that it's be more appr-" 

"Okay, okay Gee, whatdya want?" Frank asked, pushing himself up so his chin was resting on his hand, and he smiled at the nervous boy in front of him. 

"Well, uh, you know how you said you wanted us to work on our pieces outside of school..."

"Yeah..." Frank trailed off, already knowing where his student was going with the conversation. 

"Um, obviously Aws can't come to your house, because he'd know something was up with m-" 

"Your friends don't know somethings wrong?!" Frank exclaimed, sitting up properly and pushing his seat away from his desk a bit, studying the boy in front of him again. The boy blushed and looked down at his shoes, nodding slightly, his hair falling over his face as he did so and fidgeting where he was stood. 

"Hmm, okay, do continue, sorry for interrupting." Frank urged him on.

"Well, uh, as I said, Awsten can't come to yours, and he's grounded for the next 5 weeks so I can't go to his... "

"Is he allowed to stay after school, like, if he were to stay in school and go home a bit later than normal?"

"Yeah , I guess he probably could, you might have to call his mum though so she doesn't ground him for even longer than he already is..." 

"Great, I can't go home until you're ready to so if you want to stay here and work on your piece after school then I'm fine with that," Frank grinned "So that would work out for all of us then, wouldn't it? And I can just call his mum at the end of school on the days you decide to stay behind."

"Thank you, Frank." The boy looked up at Frank from under his fringe and smiled lightly but a genuine smile none-the-less. 

"Hey, don't you need to be somewhere? Like in a class? Gerard it's almost 20 past!" Frank noted, his voice becoming noticeably higher as he realized how long Gerard had been talking to him.

The younger boy gasped, looking up at the clock above Frank's head and turning to grab his bag so he could run to his lesson and make up some shitty excuse as to why he was so late. 

"Hey, wait up! I'll write you a pass so your teacher doesn't bite your head off yeah?" Frank nearly shouted just before Gerard could leave the room, and leant down to pull a slip out of his bag, quickly writing what Gerard had been with him, dating and signing it in his somewhat scruffy writing and thrust it towards the scruffy boy, letting him leave to his next lesson. 

Once Gerard had left the room, letting the door fall shut behind him after muttering a quick goodbye and taking off down the hall, Frank let his head fall back into his arms again, exhaling loudly. He closed his eyes, so he could just think. He didn't get a lot of time nowadays where he could 'just think'. As it turns out, 'just thinking' turned into a lot more than he bargained for when his mind, once again, strayed to the red-haired boy he had let stay with him. The way his eyes crinkled at the corners and his eyes shone when he was genuinely happy, the way that he chewed on things while he was thinking - usually his pen of sometimes his lip - and the way he could go from an incredibly awkward, yet adorable, blushing teenage boy to some devious, sassy and confident man. 

Frank rubbed his face with his hands, sighing slightly, then picked up his phone off the desk to check the time. Only 10 minutes until break time. His eyes then strayed to the instruments left scattered around the room (he had told his last class they could leave them there since no one was in there after them, and he had them after break), and more specifically, the guitar. He walked over to the last remaining guitar and picked it up, perching on the table next to where it had been leaning against. 

He let his fingers stroke over the fretboard before plucking the intro to Sweet Child O Mine. He went into the small store cupboard at the back of the room and retrieved one of the amps and a cord to plug the guitar into. Plugging the speaker back into the wall, plugging the guitar into the amp and sitting down next to it on the table again he played the familiar chords to Smells Like Teen Spirit, tapping his feet along in time to when the drums would play and smiling to himself a little. 

"I didn't know you could play guitar." A familiar voice sounded from just behind him. Frank twitched a bit, startled at the sudden, unexpected noise and twisted to look at his student. 

"Well, I guess I can, I'm alright... I think." 

"No fuckin' way dude you're amazing!" Gerard exclaimed, his lopsided smile making its way onto his face as he grinned at the young teacher. 

Frank smiled back before realising what Gerard had said, "Language Gerard!" 

"...oops?" The younger boy offered back with an awkward, yet somehow mischievous smile. 

"We're in school now, so it's my duty as your teacher to tell you off for using such foul language in front of a member of staff," Frank said, trying and failing to keep a straight face, letting a small snigger slip out at the end. 

Frank placed the guitar onto the table - so it was ready for if anyone wanted to use it in the next lesson - and stood up, walking himself to the front of the classroom and falling back into his chair. He could see faces at the door of the classroom and beckoned them in, waving his hand. 

"I would explain the lesson plan, but really? It's exactly what I told you last lesson - if you need anything don't be afraid to ask." He smiled, then pulled his laptop out in front of him so he could take the register, clicking through the class in front of him, glancing up to check each pupil was in. 

\---------

The day soon ended and the friends were driving back home through the rush-hour traffic. Gerard pushed open the glovebox and pulled out the mixtape Frank had played on their first journey to his house. Since then, Gerard had added more of his favourite songs, from bands Frank had either never bothered to listen to, or had never heard of. Soon enough Gerard had fast-forwarded through most of the songs until he reached his current favourite song, 'Animal Style' by Biffy Clyro. Although it hadn't come out recently, one of his friends had recommended that he listen to them. So he did. And he fell in love. So now he was set on making Frank love them as much as he did. 

"Hmm this is good, who's it by?" 

"Biffy Clyro," the younger replied grinning. Frank just rolled his eyes and smiled, fully aware of what Gerard was doing. 

Frank flicked his indicator on, pulling up onto his driveway and pushing open his car door, looking over at Gerard, who was seemingly staring into space, just sat in his seat, and hadn't reacted to the fact that the car had stopped. 

"Gerard?" 

"Huh? Oh, yeah... sorry... getting out now" the younger boy gave a small smile, but looked away quickly and opened his door, climbing out of the car and going to stand next to the front door, his school bag hanging loosely by one of the straps from his hand, waiting for the older male to unlock the door for him.   
Frank shut the door and locked his car, walking up to the door and unlocking it, pushing it open for Gerard to walk in. 

\------

Frank wasn't sure if he was just being overly worried or if Gerard was acting strange. It seemed like his mood had gone completely downhill in the short time they had been in the car.

Was it something Frank had done? Did he say the wrong thing? He didn't remember the younger boy reacting to anything particularly negatively to anything he'd said. Frank glanced up to the stairway, Gerard had been in the shower for almost 40 minutes. Now if Gerard was a teenage girl he wouldn't be too worried, but he knew how much Gerard disliked showering and would only stay under the running water for as long as was completely necessary - to wash his hair and himself - and then he'd be out, and this only usually took 5 to 10 minutes at most. That's why Frank was worried. 

He wandered up the stairs, pausing next to his bedroom for a minute, deciding that if Gerard wasn't out of the bathroom by the time he had gotten changes then he would go and check up on the younger boy.

He pushed open the door to his bedroom, closing it behind him and hearing the door close with a satisfying click, and walked over to his closet, pulling out a plain white shirt and some sweatpants (or whatever u weirdo americans call them) and threw them onto his bed. He pulled at the top of his tie and pulled it off over his head and looped it over the hooks on the back of his door. His shirt then followed suit, but wat thrown into the washing hamper behind his door, along with his black 'smart' skinny jeans, which also got thrown into the hamper in the form of a screwed up ball of denim. He quickly sprayed some deodorant under his arms so he didn't smell absolutely horrific (as he had showers in the morning instead of the evening) and picked up the pants he had thrown onto his bed before, pulling them on and pulling his shirt on after. 

He left his room, walking further up the landing and standing outside the bathroom door for a second to listen If the shower was still running. 

It was. 

Frank knocked on the door, pausing again to try and hear if Gerard had replied, or even heard him. He was met with what sounded like a small sob. Or maybe he misheard that over the sound of the shower. 

But he heard it again, it definitely sounded like Gerard had been, or even still was, crying.

"Gee? Are you okay?" the sobs seemed to stop and it took a minute for the younger boy to reply,

"Me? yeah, I-I'm fine," Gerard's voice hitched in the middle of his short sentence which he knew meant he wasn't fooling anyone, not himself and most definitely not Frank. 

"Gee, is it okay if I come in? I think we both know you're not really alright..." Frank trailed off, waiting for an answer, but it never came.

"Gerard if you don't tell me you don't want me to come in, I'm going to come in, okay?" Frank paused again, but he heard nothing except the running water and a small sniffle, barely audible over the sound of the shower. He gave Gerard one last chance before turning the door handle,

"Okay, I'm coming in now, Gerard." Frank twisted the handle fully and pushed the door open, slowly so Gerard would still have time to jump up and close the door if he wanted to, but he didn't, so Frank peaked around the door. 

Gerard was huddled up, his knees to his chest and his arms wrapped around his knees, his eyes on a fixed spot on the floor of the shower as the steaming water ran over him. His skin was flushed red and his eyes were half closed.

Frank took in a sharp inhale of breath at the sight of the boy before him, "C'mon Gee, lets get you out of there," the older male said softly, trying to beckon the younger out of the shower. When the younger gave no reaction though, Frank felt he was forced to go in and help Gerard out himself. He pulled off his pants and shirt, leaving him in only his boxers and left the clothes on the toilet seat lid (Which was very conveniently down). 

Frank crouched down, outside the shower so he was eye-level with Gerard, and shuffled himself towards the younger boy. Gerard lifted his head slightly, making eye contact with Frank as if he was only just acknowledging he was there and a look of surprise crossed his features.

"Come on Gerard," Frank said, in a voice only slightly louder than a whisper. He had his arms spread out as if he were going to hug the younger boy. Gerard just shook his head slightly, his eyes dropping back to the floor and heavy tears rolled down his cheeks.

Frank shuffled forwards again, so he was now within arms reach of Gerard. He went to pull the younger boy out from under the running but snatched his arm back, hissing a little.  
"Jesus Christ, Gerard, that's literally boiling, how are you sat under that?!" Frank almost shrieked, almost. Instead he put his hand out, so it wasn't under the water, but Gerard could easily hold onto it if he wanted to, which he did. 

Frank smiled lightly, his eyes flickering from their clasped hands to Gerard's face. The elder of the two shuffled backwards, so Gerard's arm was extended out in front of him. Gerard's gaze wandered up Frank's body, making him feel slightly self conscious at the lack of clothes the both of them were wearing, but he realized it wasn't really him, Gerard was looking at, it was his tattoos. He beckoned the younger again, standing up so he was above Gerard and holding his free hand out wide so if Gerard wanted a hug, he could have one.

The younger boy suddenly shot up, falling forwards into Franks chest and gripping onto him tightly. His hot, wet skin was pushed up against Frank as he tried to maneuver them out of the shower. Heaving sobs were being let out of Gerard's mouth as he clutched onto Frank, not wanting to let go. The older man stroked his fingers through the youngers' hair in a soothing manner, trying to calm him down. 

Frank then realized that Gerard was still completely naked, and although Frank couldn't actually see anything, he could definitely feel every part of Gerard (as he was pressed up against the older man). Frank yanked a towel off the towel rack to the side of them and attempted to wrap it around the younger boy's shoulders. It was at this point that Gerard, too, realized how naked he was and shuffled away awkwardly, clutching the towel around him tightly. It completely swamped him, covering all the way from his neck to his lower claves. 

Frank, by this point, had turned around and picked up his pants. He was originally planning on putting them back on himself, but then had thought that Gerard might feel more comfortable if he was wearing something other than a towel. 

"Here," He said holding out the clothes, "Do you want to put these on, and we can get you some pyjamas later?"

Gerard nodded slightly, a blush still spread across his face from before, and his hand came out from under the towel to take the pants. 

"Thank you." He whispered, not meeting Frank's gaze.

Frank turned around so he was facing the bathroom wall, away from Gerard. The towel was dropped to the floor with a heavy sound and a few seconds later a warm hand slipped into Frank's own. The older male smiled slightly and picked up his shirt from the toilet seat, then walked with Gerard out of the door, leading him back to his own room. Once there, he sat the younger boy down on the bed, the white shirt now clutched in his hands. 

"Here you go, i think this will fit." Frank said, turning back to Gerard with a skeleton onesie in his hands, holding it by the shoulders in front of him, his neck craned to the side so he could see Gerard's reaction. 

The younger boy smiled gratefully and nodded, so Frank walked over, handing him the soft material. It was at this point when Frank noticed again how he was literally just standing in front of Gerard in just his underwear. He picked up the white top he had been wearing before and pulled it over his head, again, and turned back to his closet, pulling out some plaid pyjama pants which he pulled up over his legs, doing a little jump at the end so he wasn't stood on the heels and he could pull them up properly. 

When he turned back around, Gerard was still sat on the bed with the onesie in his lap. He was staring at Frank with a dazed sort of expression, but his cheeks turned a ferocious red colour as he realised Frank had caught him and looked down to the material in his hands.

"I'm, uh, gonna go get changed now," Gerard said, standing up from the bed and making his way towards the door.

"Okay, well I'll be making tea soon so be down for that." Frank smiled back as Gerard backed out of the room, returning the smile and giving a small nod of acknowledgement to let Frank know he'd heard.


	5. 5. Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> theres some v slight smut // nothing graphic tho   
> just felt the need to warn ya x

The next time Frank saw Gerard, they were both fully dressed and 'tea' was ready. Frank's definition of 'tea' today was a cheese and ham toastie (grilled cheese to all u Americans).   
He had left one out on the side in the kitchen for Gerard and had taken his to the counter so he could mark books whilst eating. 

Gerard tip-toed into the room, desperately hoping Frank wouldn't see him. He really didn't want to be confronted about his little 'episode' earlier, but he knew Frank would probably ask about it. On top of that Frank had a really nice body, Gerard really couldn't believe why he always hid it away with long-sleeved shirts and full length pants. And Frank had seen him naked, although Gerard wasn't sure how much he had seen... so that was a tad awkward. 

"Hey Gerard, you feeling better?" Frank glanced up at the younger boy with a gentle smile, but returned quickly to his work. 

"Fuck," Gerard whispered to himself, "Yeah I'm fine." He replied, his voice rising a bit at the end making his confirmation sound more like a question than an answer.   
Frank looked up again, properly, and studied the boy in front of him, 

"are you absolutely sure you're okay?" He repeated, he didn't want Gerard to be upset again but he needed to hear the answer from the boys own lips to know he was okay.   
Gerard bit his lip, and again knew he wasn't going to be fooling anyone if he said he was okay. He shook his head, screwing his eyes tight shut trying to stop tears from escaping again and his head hung low. A pair of arms were suddenly wrapped around him and a hand was brought up to caress his head. The younger boy turned his head so his cheek was pressed up against Frank's chest and tears rolled down his cheeks, being absorbed by Frank's shirt or dripping off the bottom of his chin and landing with quiet splatters on the floor. 

Frank swayed side to side, holding the younger boy close to him hoping he was being as comforting as he could be in that moment.

"I-I'm so-rry." Gerard choked out, his voice hitching again and he kept his face angled down on Frank's chest. 

"Shh, shh, shh you've got nothing to be sorry for, love." Frank let slip out before realising what he said and turning his face away from Gerard, so if the younger boy did look up, then he wouldn't see the flushed colour of his face. 

Gerard did, in fact, decide to look up, his chin resting awkwardly on Frank's collarbone. As Frank's head was turned away he took the chance to look at some of the tattoos he had never properly seen before. There was a scorpion tattoo just behind his ear, which was usually covered by his hair at school. There was also a logo or symbol as well, just above the scorpion, Gerard wasn't sure what for but he made a mental note to himself to ask later. 

Below the scorpion was some numerals, again, Gerard didn't know what for but he wanted to assume they were a date or something like that.  
The tears finally stopped flowing and the two men were just stood, keeping hold of the embrace, each cherishing the moment but neither quite knew why. 

It was at this point Gerard realised how tired his legs were getting, 

"can we sit down?" 

"Yes! Yes, of course we can. Do you want to go and make yourself comfy on the sofa and I'll bring your food over to you?" Frank smiled down at the smaller boy, who nodded in reply, detaching himself from Frank and walking over to the sofa. 

Frank went to put both his and Gerard's toasties in the microwave to warm them up so they could eat them, then leant against the counter so he could see Gerard.   
The younger boy was fiddling with the sleeves of the onesie, his eyes darting around the room every now and then, returning back to the sleeves after a few seconds.   
The microwave beeped loudly, startling both of them, and Frank spun round quickly as to avoid any awkwardness that he had just been staring at Gerard for the past 2 minutes. Gerard also to jumped, the noise had pulled him from his thoughts and he glanced over his shoulder to see Frank turning his back so he could get the food out of the microwave.   
Frank turned back, holding two plates in front of him, one with a toastie on, the other with a toastie that had been half eaten already, which Gerard assumed wasn't his. Frank put his plate down on the counter next to him, taking a bite out of his toastie,

"Sorry, im just really hungry." He smiled apologetically through the mouthful of food. He kept his toastie in his hand and picked up the one on the other plate, bringing it over to the younger boy and placing it down on the coffee table in front of him, falling back onto the sofa. He accidentally slid down so he was pressed up against Gerard, who blushed profusely and turned his head away so Frank hopefully wouldn't catch it. But he did. 

Soon the tv was turned on (in Frank's attempt to clear any awkwardness lingering in the room) and Pulp Fiction was playing. 

—————

By the end of the film Gerard was completely pressed up against Frank (again). His head was resting on the others chest. Frank was now lying down with the Gerard curled up on top of him, not that he minded of course.

The credits had started rolling and Frank was painfully aware of the fact tit was only Wednesday, so they both had school tomorrow, so really needed to go to bed. 

"Gerard?" Frank whispered, shifting slightly under the weight of the smaller boy. 

"Gerard, we need to go to bed now," he whispered, prodding him to see if that would wake him up. When it didn't, Frank just decided that he would have to carry Gerard upstairs to his room. 

He carefully sat up, wrapping his arms around the younger boy so he was holding him 'bridal style', and stood up, maneuvering his way around the sofa to get to the stairs and carried Gerard up to his room. He lay the sleeping boy down, pulling the covers over him, then paused for a moment. 

"Sleep Well, sweetheart," he smiled fondly, and pressed a kiss to Gerard's jaw. 

*Oh fuck.* 

*He just kissed you.* 

*Gerard he just kissed you what are you gonna do.* 

*Gerard smiled and stared at the ceiling, Frank had kissed him. Surely that meant something, right?* 

*Of course it means something dipshit.* 

The feel of Frank's soft lips pressing against his jaw, and the slight bristle from him not shaving that day could still be felt and Gerard thought about what else Frank might do. 

*Gerard that is exactly what we are not gonna think about. *

*Gerard! *

*Gerard dont you dare get-*

*Oh my god please don't tell me you're actually hard. For fucks sake Gerard it was one kiss. *

*Don't you dare get up and go into hi-*

*Where are you going? Don't tell me you're going to his room!*

*Oh Gerard! *

Gerard sat up in his bed, it had been almost an hour since Frank had gone to bed - surely he was asleep now? The younger boy wandered into Frank's room, overcome by a need to be with him, and slipped under the covers, pulling himself close to the sleeping body. 

"Gerard?" Frank mumbled, half asleep. Gerard just nodded in return, his head was on Frank's chest again so he felt it. And they were okay lying like that until Frank shifted slightly under Gerard so he was in a better position to sleep, and Gerard had to suppress a whimper as Frank's hip pressed back against his erection.

*Oooooh shit. *

*Gerard I told you not to come in here. *

Gerard just rolled his eyes at his thoughts then closed them, smiling contentedly with the warmth of the older man. 

But Frank's eyes snapped open at the small noise released from the boy. Had he really just heard that? Or was he just imagining... 

The pair lay there, not moving for maybe about half an hour until Gerard fell asleep, his breathing slowing down slightly and his muscles completely relaxing. 

Frank was about to fall asleep too, that was until the younger boy moved again, his hips pressing up against Frank's (upper) thigh and another whimper was released, his forehead creasing. He rocked his hips back and forth against Frank. 

Gerard was most definitely asleep, which made it even worse for Frank. Could he just move Gerard back to his own room? Or could he get up and have a shower so he could get himself off? Or would he just have to wait it out and try to make things seem not so awkward in the morning? 

Who was Gerard even thinking about? He hadn't expressed any opinion on anyone at school recently so Frank doubted it would be anyone like that.   
Gerard let out one last quiet yet shuddering moan, his tensed up muscles relaxing again and his face softening and he snuggled up against Frank, moving himself so he was more on top of the older male than before.

Which was when Frank was made painfully aware of his own problem down in his crotch as Gerard wiggled up, so his head was next to the older mans' and his leg was pulled up over Frank's lower torso, his knee exactly over Frank's crotch. 

"O-oh," Frank gasped, trying to not think about the boy in that way, hopefully he would be able to sleep it off. But if Gerard was going to fidget all night, then Frank knew this was going to be a long night.

\---------

To make it short, Frank didn't get very much sleep that night. Every time he dropped off, Gerard would shift in his sleep slightly, not helping Frank out at all. The man seriously thought he was going to die of blue-balls, and his hot and swollen crotch was borderline painful. 

So you bet that at 6.30am he shot up out of bed so he could take a shower. He would have had one earlier, but then he may have woken Gerard up, and then he probably would have questioned why Frank was showering at 4 in the morning - a little too late, or early for either of their standards. 

Gerard woke up soon after, bleary eyed and wondering where Frank had gone, but his question was soon answered when he heard the shower running in the next room. His thoughts from the previous night flooded back to him, why on earth had he thought it was a good idea to go into Frank's room, and cuddle up to him whilst having an erection because of him? 

Gerard glanced down, lifting up the duvet, and his suspicions were confirmed once he saw a pale stain on the front of the onesie which he would have to apologise to Frank about. He was about to get out of the bed and leave the room when he hear something that caught his attention. A low moan had been let out from the bathroom - and there was only one person in there; Frank.

The shower was turned off a few seconds later, forcing Gerard to roll back onto his side and pretend to be asleep again - he couldn't possibly have Frank know he had just heard him getting off in the shower. The door clicked open a few seconds later and Gerard heard Frank pad across the floor to where his closet was, although he hesitated in the doorway - most likely checking that Gerard was still asleep and a sigh of relief was heard. The younger boy opened one of his eyes a sliver, and there Frank was - standing there, a towel looped loosely around his waist, water still dripping from his damp hair and his torso - obviously not fully dry - was rippling as he reached one arm up to pull a red shirt off one of the top shelves. 

Gerard quickly shut his eyes again when Frank twisted, again, probably to check he was still asleep. What happened next surprised Gerard to some extent. Frank dropped his towel on the floor, leaving it there so he could pick it up later, then went rummaging through his underwear drawer. 

Gerard peeked again, and blushed at the naked man in front of him who was crouched down and picking out some boxers for him to wear. He soon found some, which he stood up and pulled on, before walking back over to the bed and pulling on the red shirt he had left there before - well, Gerard assumed that as he had shut his eyes again so he wouldn't be caught. 

The younger boy felt now would be an appropriate time to 'wake up' and twisted slightly, bringing his hand up to his eyes and rubbing them to try and remove the tiredness. Frank visibly stiffened for a second then relaxed again once he remembered he was actually wearing clothes, and not just standing at the foot of his bed completely naked. 

"G'morning," Gerard croaked out, forgetting his morning voice was most definitely not the sexiest. The older man giggled slightly, 

"Good morning to you too, bedhead." 

"Have I got school today?" Gerard questioned, looking around for something that would tell him what day of the week it was. 

"Well, I'll put it this way. I am going to school, because its Friday and I need to teach some lessons."

Gerard groaned, rolling over so his face was pressed down into the pillow.

"Yeah, Gerard I know, I feel like that too, but we gotta go to school, okay?" Frank sighed, falling down onto the bed next to the younger boy, his head turned towards Gerard, a small smile on his face. Gerard groaned again, the sound muffled by the pillow, and turned his head, meeting the older mans gaze. 

"Do I have to? Like, really have to?" 

"As your teacher I'm going to say yes, because you aren't ill so you have no reason to not go into school," Frank sighed, his eyes closing momentarily, "But if you really don't want to, then I can't force you." He continued, opening his eyes again and looking back at Gerard. The pair were close together, their faces mere inches apart. Gerard had to resist the urge to just kiss Frank right there and then - the feeling of Frank's light breath on his lips was almost enough to push him over the edge, but Frank moved away, pulling a black denim jacket off the back of his door and pulling it on over his top. 

"If you're coming then I'm going to be leaving in half an hour - at 8, if not just shoot me a text and I'll tell you where anything is if you don't know already." Frank smiled lightly, before leaving the room. Gerard listened to the sound of the older man's footsteps grow fainter as he moved downstairs, and if he listened hard enough, he could hear him padding around in the kitchen on the tiled floor. 

It was an understatement to say that Gerard's heart was beating out of his chest. Nervous? yes - very much so. Happy? Yes, they almost kissed, almost.  
He glanced over at the time on the nightstand and rolled his eyes. He really didn't want to go into school, but he knew he would upset Frank by not going, and he hated it when Frank was upset. 

He sat up and crawled off the bed, pulling a green camo coloured button up shirt out of Frank's closet on the way out of the room. Once back in his own room he unzipped the onesie, sliding out of it and leaving it piled on the floor.

"Ahh fuck, I forgot about that," He muttered to himself when he noticed an awkward, slightly tacky white substance on his lower stomach, and grabbed a makeup wipe to get rid of it. He picked up some boxers that he thought he hadn't already worn and pulled them on, pulling on a pair of black skinny jeans over the top. He sprayed a bit of deodorant under his arms - just so he didn't reek - and slipped the green shirt on. He picked up his schoolbag from where he had dumped it the night before, and a zipper-hoodie that happened to be next to his bag. he unplugged his phone from the charger where it had been plugged in overnight and slipped it into his back pocket after checking the time. He had 5 minutes. 

"Shit." He ran into the bathroom, brushing his hair and then his teeth quickly, then grabbed his bag and hoodie and ran downstairs, just in time to see Frank unlocking the door with a slightly dampened expression. 

"I'm ready," Gerard breathed out, slightly out of breath from running around. Frank turned to face him, 

"Good, I was really thinking you weren't going to come. Are you going to leave your shirt like that? I don't think its allowed in the school dress code..." Frank smirked. Gerard looked down, confused, He had forgotten to button the shirt of so his pale chest was showing through the gap in the dark fabric.

"Oh... I must have... forgotten." Gerard blushed, trying to button the shirt up, but when he had a bag full of books in one hand, and a hoodie in the other, it was proving to be rather difficult for him. He fumbled with the buttons for a few seconds before some larger hands slowly pushed his own out of the way.

Gerard let his arms hang limply at his side and he looked up at Frank, who's brows furrowed in concentration as he did the buttons up himself. He was about midway up when he paused, looking up and down the shirt a couple of times before opening his mouth, then closing it again, not sure of what to say.

"Is... Is this my shirt?" He eventually asked, looking down at the younger boy, who blushed and looked down.

"Maybe?" he blushed even more.

"Hey, hey its okay, I was just wondering." Frank smiled and continued doing the buttons up, leaving the top one undone.

"O-okay, if you say so." Gerard mumbled, still staring down at his converse clad feet.

Frank's hands brushed against the younger boys' neck as he fixed the collar - lying it down flat, then pulled his keys out of the door, then pulled the door open, holding it for long enough that Gerard could slip through.


	6. 6. Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so late!! ive had exams the past two weeks so its been p much non-stop revision for me lol what fun but im writing & sorry in advance for the cliffhanger whoops xoxo

"Hey, Gerard?"

"Yeah?"

"What size are you?" Gerard spun around, looking at the living room door, searching for the man who owned the voice talking to him. 

"What?" 

"Like, What clothes size are you?"

"Oh, uh a 14 I think; sometimes a 10 or a 12 though."

"Yes!" Gerard heard the older male whisper-shout to himself. He soon appeared around the corner holding a dark grey coloured piece of fabric. 

"I went shopping the other day, and I found this and thought you might like it, so I got it or you but I had to guess your size aha," He laughed awkwardly, holding out the fabric to Gerard, who took it and held it out in front of him. He giggled at the quote on the front, looking between the shirt and the man standing behind it, who was now leaning in the doorway, smiling at the younger boy. 

"Is it okay?" Frank asked, after getting no response from the boy apart from the grin and giggle.

"It's great! Thank you so much Frankie, I love it!" Gerard exclaimed like a small child, jumping up from where he was sat on the big armchair and wrapping his arms around Frank's waist, his head pressed against Frank's chest.

"It's okay, it was nothing, really." Frank smiled, looking down at the boy fondly. 

"No, seriously, thank you." Gerard squeezed his eyes shut and tightened his grip around the older man's waist. 

"That's alright, love." Frank rested his head on top of the younger boys' , and kept hold of the embrace. The older man swore he could feel the happiness radiating from Gerard.  
Gerard only let go of Frank when he realized how long he had been holding onto him and how much he needed to use the toilet, so excused himself and ran upstairs, throwing the tee onto his bed and going to the bathroom. When he returned downstairs Frank was lying on the sofa, his feet propped up by one arm and his head laying on all four of the cushions that had been spread equally across it previously. 

Gerard was going to sit on the big armchair, but saw the perfect moment to test out how much Frank liked him, that was, if he even did at all. 

The younger boy crawled onto the sofa, on top of Frank and lay down, his head resting on Franks chest and his arms folded up, resting just by his cheek. He could hear Frank's heart thumping wildly, possibly because of him, and out of the corner of his eye he could see a blush dusting the older man's cheeks.   
Gerard wasn't planning on falling asleep there, and Frank's rhythmic and slow breathing didn't help at all with that. He was vaguely aware of Frank turning the television off and carrying him upstairs. He didn't open his eyes, but had assumed Frank had put him in his own room as the older man lay him down, and tucked him in and left.   
He heard the tap running in the bathroom and a quiet scrubbing sound. Gerard turned over in his half-awake state, wrapping the duvet around him and bringing a hand up to his face, so naturally he was startled when he hadn't heard Frank getting changed, and the older man slipped under the duvet with him.  
Frank's arm wrapped around Gerard's waist, pulling him closer so Frank was spooning him. He propped himself up and pressed a kiss to Gerard's cheek, his lips lingering there for longer than necessary. 

"Goodnight, love." He whispered. All that could be heard for the next few minutes was the quiet exhales of the two men as they lay in bed together.

"Gerard?..." Frank whispered. The younger male didn't reply or make any notion to relay to Frank that he had heard him.

"I'm going to assume you're asleep now, because if you're not this is going to be really awkward in the morning." He continued and took a deep breath in. 

"You probably have no idea what you're doing to me, but I like you a whole lot, maybe a little too much for my liking," Frank whispered, his breath tickling Gerard's ear. 

"And I wanna be with you, but that's illegal, because I'm your teacher, and we could get into so much shit for it, and I wouldn't be willing to risk you for that. Fuck, Gerard I like you so much why can't you see that?" Frank whispered, letting out a sob at the last sentence. 

Gerard took this as his opportunity, he felt the same way about the older man, who clearly hadn't realized why he was being so affectionate with him, and he rolled over so their noses were almost touching and Gerard could see Frank's tear stained face glittering in the darkness. Frank stiffened. 

It's now or never Gerard.

He pushed his lips forwards, capturing Frank's in his own, and the pair shared the sweet moment with little kisses. Frank's scruff scratching at the younger boy's face as he pressed his lips to almost every part of Gerard's face.

"Frankie," Gerard started, a wide smile breaking out on his face and Frank pulled back a little bit, to see what they younger boy was going to say, still slightly cautious that Gerard could still turn him down and his eyebrows creased at the thought. 

"I- I really like you too." The grin cut him off again as Frank peppered kisses all over his face, "And I want to be with you too, I thought I was making it obvious, and I know its illegal, but it won't be for long, I'll be leaving school soon Frankie and we wont have to worry about the law." Gerard whispered back, his eyes wide, anticipating the older mans response. 

"We'll make it work, love." And for the first time, Gerard blushed and finally knew the reason why he had been so awkward and jittery around the man for the past couple of months.  
He pressed one last kiss to Frank's lips, savoring the softness of them, then pulled his head back. He nudged the older mans shoulder rolling him over, so he was lying on his back, and then shuffled so he was lying on top of him, in their usual position of Gerard's head resting on Frank's bare chest and their breathing slowed together and the pair of them fell asleep with smiles plastered on their faces.

\-------------

Gerard woke up, bleary eyed and in the same position he was in last night, lying on top of Frank. He lay there for a while, his fingers trailing over the older man's tattoos, content with his life for once. 

He soon got bored of just lying there and pushed himself up so he was straddling Frank, his face directly above the older male's. 

He pressed a kiss to Frank's lips, watching carefully as his eyes fluttered open. 

"You are not telling me that you just woke up." 

"I didn't," Frank smirked back "I just wanted to see if you would wake me up by kissing me." 

Gerard rolled his eyes then rolled off the older man, lying next to him on his back. He could feel Frank's eyes on him, but he didn't mind. 

"Can we have breakfast soon?" Gerard mumbled, turning back to Frank, who chuckled, 

"I swear all you think about is food and hugs," he replied, rolling his eyes, " but yes we can, but only if you pick out my outfit for me. I can't be arsed with deciding what to wear today." 

Gerard groaned but rolled dramatically to the edge of the bed, then stood up and walked over to the closet. He pulled out some black skinny jeans - since those seemed to be the only type of pants Frank owned - then a plain white tee and a pale denim jacket which had some small pin badges on. He turned back to the bed holding out his choice of outfit with a little smile on his face and placed it, in a neat pile, at the foot of the bed. 

Frank cocked an eyebrow then glanced from Gerard to his drawers - where his underwear was kept and attempted to keep a straight face and not giggle at how ferociously Gerard blushed when he realised what Frank was implying.

He shuffled over to the drawers, sending glances over at Frank every few steps to make sure the older man wasn't joking, and he wasn't. Gerard had been planning on just opening the drawer and pulling out the first pair he saw. Although, when he actually got to the drawer and opened it, he didn't. He was surprised? Shocked maybe? There were all types of underwear in that draw. Things he had most definitely not expected Frank, of all people, to wear. Well, what Gerard meant by that, was that Frank, overall was a very masc person, but that shouldn't stop him from wearing what he wants to wear.

He peaked back over his shoulder to see what Frank was doing, but he was on his phone, not paying attention to whatever Gerard pulled out. 

The younger boy eventually made a decision, and picked out some white Calvin Klein boxers and then also a pair of black lace panties what had a cute red bow on the front. He turned back to face Frank, dangling one in each hand, a smirk on his face. 

Frank obviously didn't care that Gerard now knew he owned, if not sometimes wore, women's style underwear. Well, that or he wanted to give Gerard a small insight into his life, maybe some of each. When he looked up to his phone, a look of surprise flashed across his features and his eyebrows raised slightly - not expecting Gerard to have actually picked up some of his more feminine undergarments, but it was quickly diminished, and he cocked his eyebrow at the younger boy. 

"I'm not wearing both of them, that would just be weird." he said, a smirk tugging at his lips. The younger boy rolled his eyes dramatically, balled up the two materials together and threw them at Frank, the fabrics landing on his legs. 

"I'm sure that you're grown up enough that you can decide on what underwear you want to wear, Frankie." Gerard mocked, "Or do you now want me to dress you too?" as soon as he said that he regretted it, because he knew exactly what was going to come back at him.

"Well..." Frank started, looking up at the ceiling as if he was in deep thought.

"Nope, no, definitely not, you can dress yourself you man-child." Gerard said, stalking out of the room, not even waiting to see what Frank's answer to that was going to be, although he still hear Frank shouting after him, "at least I did that for you last night." and smiled, because yes, Frank had gotten him changed at some point - as he didn't sleep in yesterdays clothes and was wearing some plaid pyjama pants and a tight-fitting vest top.

Once in his own room, he pulled out a black hoodie, a black baggy tank top and a pair of black skinny jeans and slipped out of 'his' pants and into the new clothes. He was going to go downstairs and get himself a coffee when he heard Frank shuffling around in his own room. He was going to peek to see if he had actually started getting dressed or, lets be real here, Gerard wanted to know which underwear Frank was wearing. But he held himself back, and walked past the room, and down the stairs. 

*Yeah, we don't want you getting an awkward boner at what? half nine in the morning. no thanks Gerard.*

Gerard sniggered to himself, his thoughts could be amusing sometimes, and went to stand in front of the coffee machine, adding more coffee beans and emptying the filter before placing his mug in it and waiting for the machine to give him his coffee. 

"Oh!" He gasped as a pair of arms made their way around his waist, pulling him from his thoughts. Since last night, the pair had become even more (if that was even possible) touchy-feely with each other, and Frank was now holding Gerard in front of him, the younger boy's back pressed completely against Frank. The older man had come downstairs without Gerard noticing, which had given him the perfect opportunity to do this. 

"You making me a coffee? Wow, you're an actual godsend Gee." 

"Hey, hey, not so fast there." he turned in Franks arms, so he was standing side on to the counter and to Frank, "This coffee," He said, pointing to the filling mug, "Is mine." he all but growled. 

"You want your own, you make your own. Okay?" Gerard smiled sweetly at the end, pressing a kiss to Frank's jaw, grabbing his coffee and flouncing off with it to go and sit on the sofa. 

Frank stood in his kitchen, bewildered for a second. Who knew Gerard was such an anti-morning person? He shook his head, clearing himself of his thoughts and put on a coffee for himself. He had been - and still was - planning on making pancakes, and was even more determined to because he wanted to make Gerard happy. 

Gerard was texting on his phone when he saw Frank, out of the corner of his eye, wobble into the room with three plates in his hands, balancing a stack of pancakes on one of the plates, the other two plates were balanced on his other hand and arm and had syrup, sugar and various small boxes of fruit piled on. The younger boy snorted, his attention fully taken by the man in front of him.

"A little help would be nice, please?" Frank suggested. Gerard rolled his eyes, but stood up and took the plate of pancakes off Frank, setting it down on the coffee table and let himself snuggle back onto the sofa. 

He eyed Frank as he carefully took each item off the awkwardly balanced plates, and eventually sat the plates down as well, falling back onto the sofa with a soft "oomf" and slid down into the small dip until he was squished up against Gerard. The pair looked at each other, blushed and looked in opposite directions, the previous night seemingly forgotten.   
Gerard pulled his knees up to his chest, his gaze falling on Frank's fiddling hands. The older mans hair had fallen over his face as he stared down at his lap, not sure how to start up a conversation without addressing the elephant in the room. 

"So..." Frank started, "pancakes?" He grinned, and Gerard smiled back, rocking himself forwards and picking up a pancake off the stack. He drizzled a bit of syrup on it and pulled the plate towards him, suddenly very aware of Frank's eyes on him. He blushed again under the mans gaze and picked up the plate, resting it on top of his knees - where the plate was now right in front of his face. 

He hadn't wanted to seem rude by just taking one without being offered it, but equally had wanted to break the silence by taking one and the boy's inner conflict had kept him occupied until Frank broke the silence himself. 

Gerard giggled, his face, and Frank's too, was a sticky mess and they laughed at the state they had got themselves into. Frank, preferring chocolate or Nutella over syrup not held a resemblance to a chocolate version of the joker, whereas Gerard's hair kept sticking to his face from the amount of syrup he had eaten.

Without even thinking, the younger boy leant over and licked a stripe across Frank's cheek, then kissing the side of his mouth, savouring the chocolate spread as he did so. The older man froze up from the sudden action, not expecting it, but a smile crept onto his face and Gerard blushed - again - as he realised what he had just done. 

*Hey.*   
*Gerard. *  
*What are you two now... *  
*Are you, yanno, t o g e t h e r ? *

Gerard rolled his eyes at his thoughts again, trying to ignore them, but he really couldn't get them out of his mind. 

What were Frank and him? Were they together, because neither of them had said anything about it since.

"Frankie?" Gerard questioned, quietly. 

"M-hmm?" Frank turned to look at him, his mouth was stuffed with a pancake making it incredibly hard to speak, let alone make himself understood, so he hoped Gerard wasn't going to ask any hard questions. 

"What are we?" Frank froze, he really wasn't expecting that. 

"I mean, you said you liked me, and I like you too, and we've kissed, but what does that make us?" Gerard continued, looking up into the older mans eyes.   
Frank swallowed stiffly, trying to get rid of the mouthful of pancake and also trying to think of an acceptable answer. 

"Im... not sure?" He replied, "I mean, Gerard, do you wanna be my, um, my boyfriend?" He asked, internally cringing at how awkward he sounded and was completely taken aback by the younger boy tackling him with a hug, pressing a lopsided kiss against the corner of his mouth. 

"That," Gerard said, pressing a kiss on Frank's cheek, 

"Would," he continued, pressing a kiss to his other cheek, where a dimple had formed from Frank's grin.

"Be," He pressed a kiss to the tip of Frank's nose,

"Amazing." He finalised, kissing the older man on the lips, feeling Frank completely melt under his touch. The pancakes had been completely discarded on the coffee table as the two males pressed up against each other, each kiss seemingly more needy than the last. 

Gerard's hands roamed up and down the older mans body, his hands slipping under the white shirt Frank was wearing, his fingers pressing over his boyfriends toned stomach, sliding up his sides then back down, dipping his fingers under the thick denim of Frank's skinny jeans. 

His fingers brushed against something rough, something he had only felt when his mum made him hang out the washing and he had had to peg her lacy underwear up to dry.

"Oh," he gasped for the second time that day, "so that's how you wanna play it? Hmm?" Gerard questioned, breaking away from the kiss. 

"No... no." Frank sighed, putting his hands on Gerard's chest, pushing him away slightly.

"There's... theres some things I haven't told you, that I probably should."

"Huh?" Gerard questioned, genuinely confused at what the older male was saying. He sat up, so his knees were either side of Frank, sitting back on Frank's thighs. 

"Is something wrong Frankie?" Gerard asked, his eyes wide, scared he had done something wrong.

"No- I- Well-" he kept cutting himself off, not sure how to start. 

"Frankie, I promise you I won't think of you any differently." Gerard whispered, slipping his fingers into his boyfriends' and laying his head down on the others chest.


	7. 7. Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> prolly should have said at the start (like,, in chapter 1 but oh well) ,, each chapter is set like a couple months apart (unless ive specifically said the next day or mentioned something abt them going out at the end of one chapter and been like "yesterday" nd shit) so it seems like this is moving rlly fast but irl, we say G met F in September, start of a new school yr, and its around May time now, okay? okay so they really aren't moving that fast at all tbhh

"Hey Gee, whatcha got there," Frank leant over the arm of the big armchair so he was (accidentally as he hadn't planned to lean that far) lying on his boyfriends lap. 

"Nothing." Gerard replied quickly; too quickly, snapping the book shut, tucking the pencil away that he had been using uinto the bindings of it. It was the same black leather book he had found the first day Gerard had stayed at his, and he remembered how the younger boy had seemed angry that he had dare touched it. 

"Oh... Okay," Frank mumbled, and Gerard could've sworn he heard a hint of sadness in his voice and he just flopped over Gerard, looking over the other side of the armchair and staring at the floor. The cool greyish tiles were in need of a clean but he really couldn't be bothered. Gerard's hand made its way into Frank's long hair, messing with the black strands and humming quietly to himself.

Frank vaguely recognised the song - it sounded like Sex On Fire by Kings of Leon, and now he had thought of it, he was going to have an ear worm of it for the rest of the day, at least. 

"Have you seen, Muse released a new album a few days ago? It's really good." Gerard sighed. The weight of the older man across him was strangely comforting. 

"No not yet, but I heard they're touring if you wanna go see them? They were rad last time I saw them." Frank grinned, looking up at Gerard and shifting awkwardly over the younger boys legs. 

"Omg really?!" Gerard asked leaning forwards a bit so his face was closer to Frank's, "You'd do that for me?" 

"Of course, babe." Frank smiled, chuckling a little at the blush that spread across the younger boys face and the small smile that made its way onto Gerard's face, crinkling his eyes slightly at the corners. 

\----------------

"Hey Frank do you kno- oH MY GOSH PUT SOME PANTS ON JESUS CHIRST" Gerard shrieked as he wandered into the kitchen. He was going to ask what they were having for tea (dinner/super/whatEvErtheFuck), but as he had looked up from his phone, had found Frank standing at the stove wearing an oversized hoodie and dark red lacey panties that peaked out from under the heavy fabric covering his top half.

"Wha-?" Frank turned to look at Gerard before looking down at his bare legs, "Oh shit." His eyes danced between Gerard, himself and the doorway behind Gerard. Franks' face flamed up red as he realized what was actually happening. 

Gerard's eyes had lingered on Frank's ass, and the lacy fabric hugging his thighs for a little too long and Frank pushed past Gerard, trying to escape to his room.

"Wait, Frank! Wait!" Gerard called, running after his boyfriend, but he wasn't fast enough and Frank's door was slammed shut before Gerard could reach him.

"You look really pretty, Frankie." Gerard called meekly trying to coax Frank out of the room, although, he hadn't actually expected Frank to hear him. 

"You think so?" Frank asked, barely louder than a whisper. 

"I know so, Frankie, you look so pretty, so fucking pretty." And god help Gerard if Frank ever found out about the cramped space in his pants then from just thinking about his boyfriend in lingerie. The door cracked open a sliver, and Frank's eyes peeked from behind it, widening as he saw Gerard sitting half-cross-legged next to the door. 

"You look gorgeous Frankie." Gerard almost moaned, but managed to keep himself together - just about- until Frank crawled into his lap and rested his head against Gerard's chest.

"Are... Are you hard?" Frank giggled as he felt Gerards crotch pressed up against him as he shifted again, trying to find a comfier position. 

"Yes?" Gerard squeaked out, his cheeks tinting red.

"I mean," Frank started, "I knew I looked good but, geez, not this good!" He pressed his face into Gerard's chest, smiling against the youngers skin. 

"You really do, Frankie." Gerard mumbled against the top of Frank's head, where he had leant down to press a kiss to it. 

"Do you wanna... uh... yanno?" 

"What?" Gerard asked, genuinely confused. 

"Well... you gotta do something about you know..." Frank blushed and Gerard gasped in realisation.

"Oh, Frankie no it's fine, I'll live." Gerard laughed as the older man pressed his head further against his chest, and the two sat like that until Frank jumped up, a scared look on his face. 

"I forgot about tea!" And he ran off down he stairs, attempting to salvage whatever he could from the slightly overcooked food, leaving Gerard sat on the floor with a raging erection because of him simply seeing the older male in lingerie - he wasn't even trying to look good, Gerard cursed himself then cursed his raging hormones (that were probably going absolutely mental in his body). 

By the time Gerard arrived downstairs Frank had found a pair of pants to put on - although they still hugged his slightly curvy body tightly, but Gerard - of course - didn't mind in the slightest. But it did get Gerard thinking, for someone who had first presented themselves as an overly masculine and possibly even more of a dominant person, Frank sure did like to bring his feminine side out, especially at home, or maybe it was just Gerard. 

The younger boy moved forwards, wrapping his arms around Frank's waist, resting his chin on the others shoulder. 

"You're- oh, did you-"

"Yeah." Gerard mumbled, assuming the question, back against Frank's neck. 

"Did you wash your ha-" Frank attempted again, 

"Yeah I did, don't worry baby." 

"Oh okay." He whispered back, continuing with cooking the pasta, stirring it around in the pan with a spatula. 

———

"Fuck this pasta is so good." Gerard moaned. 

"I know, you tell me that every time we have pasta, Gee." Frank sniggered back, his eyes glancing up at the boy opposite him and chuckling again at the tomato sauce smeared across the lower half of his face. 

"Y'know, you got a little something..." Frank started, lifting his hand up to his own face, "just about here." He said gesturing around from his nose downwards, then burst out laughing again. 

"Shut up." Gerard grumbled back, a frown creasing his features and refusing to look up at Frank. He shovelled the pasta angrily into his mouth, a scowl on his face as he tried to ignore the laughing man opposite him. 

But, as always, he soon gave in, discreetly looking down to try and hide the smile spreading across his face, although Frank couldn't see this as Gerard hair flopped forwards over his face. 

The pair sat in silence, eating their pasta (which was very tasty) until the younger boy spoke quietly,  
"Is there any more?" 

"Huh? Oh yeah, there's a bit left in the pan if you wanna help yourself to whatever." Frank shrugged, twisting the spaghetti around his fork absentmindedly. Gerard's chair scraped back across the floor and Frank heard the slight patter of his feet across the tiled floor as he went to get more food. 

The next thing Frank heard was a crash, a splat and

"Oh fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfu-"

"Gerard?" 

There was a pause... "yeah?" An extremely high pitched voice replied, and Frank could hear the wince at the end. 

"You okay?" 

"... I think?" 

Frank sighed, and followed Gerard into the kitchen, rolling his eyes at the sight before him. Gerard was stood, gaping, at the pan in front of him. On the floor, upside down in front of him. Completely emptied of its contents. 

"I am so sorry." Gerard all but whispered, not looking up from the mess in front of him. 

"I'll clean it up, don't worry I - I can - you can go and finish your dinner, fuck, I'm so sorry." He continued, his gaze not shifting from the sight on the floor. 

Frank moved forwards, stepping between Gerard and the pasta on the floor, pulling the younger boy into him. Gerard's head turned sideways against Frank's chest and his arms automatically wrapped themselves around his waist.

"Shh shh shh it's okay Gee." Frank whispered against the younger boy's head, his hands rubbing up and down Gerard's sides in a comforting way. Gerard didn't talk for a couple of minutes, and then Frank felt a dampness against his chest.

"Hey, hey, Gee calm down it's fine, don't worry ab-"

"But it's not fine!" Gerard sobbed, looking up at Frank, "I just spilt a pan of pasta all over the floor and we could have had that for tea tomorrow and, and now I've wasted it and you're probably really mad at me because I'm such a failure and I can't do anything rig-"

Frank cut him off. He pressed his lips down to Gerard's, silencing his degrading words. 

"I-" kiss, "could-" kiss, "never-" kiss, "ever-" kiss, "be mad at you." He finished. Frank brought his hand up to the younger boys face, rubbing the pads of his thumbs under Gerard's eyes, wiping away the salty tears there, forcing the younger boy to look up at him, well-

"Have you grown? I swear you weren't this tall like last week..." 

Gerard giggled, his hand coming up to cover his mouth, "I don't know, maybe I have." 

The boy, who had - at the start of the year - been much shorter than the teacher was now almost eye-level with him. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he grinned up at the older man and the light shimmered off his tear-stained face.

"You have definitely grown." Frank finalised, and pressed another kiss to his boyfriend's lips, his hands cupping the younger males face as he did so. He broke away from the kiss again,

"And soon enough," Frank let out a small laugh, "you're gonna end up being taller than me, and we can't have that!" He giggled. 

"You should invest in a pair of heels then shouldn't you?" 

Frank snorted, holding Gerard out at arms length away from him. 

"Me? In heels? You must be going crazy," Frank muttered, pulling Gerard back into the embrace, resting his chin on the others shoulder, "although I wouldn't mind trying it out." He whispered in a way that could have been interpreted as seductive. Gerard coughed, well spluttered would've been a better way to describe his reaction and his cheeks flushed red as he buried his head in the crook of Frank's neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof sorry this took so long im updating more regularly on my wattpad @/fxckmefrankie if you wanna check out any of my works over there :)


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